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Copyright N°_ 



C0PXR7GHT DEPOSm 



A'Chu and Other Stones 




© U. & XL, N. Y. 



UMBRELLA PAGODA, PEKING 



A'CHU 



AND 



Other Stories 



By 

Emma T. Anderson 




1920 



Review ,& Herald Publishing Assn. 

Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. 



US*!*' 

.A* 



Copyrighted, 1920 

Review and Herald Pub. Assn. 

Washington, D. C. 



" MAY -7 &2Q 
©CU566876 



) 

10 



K> 



DEDICATION 

To My Three Children 

Always My Best Interpreters 

of the 

Motives and Conduct of Those Other Children 

We All Loved so Well 




© U. & U., N. Y. 
MISSION CHILDREN OF CANTON, WITH ONE LITTLE AMERICAN 

See how neatly they are dressed. This shows the uplift- 
ing influence of the gospel. 



PREFACE 

" A'Chu and Other Stories " introduces the 
reader to the millions of China, the most populous, 
the most promising of all the mission fields of the 
world today. 

The author has given her life in no stinted measure 
to these people whom she has learned to love as her 
own. Such giving of love and service is life's great- 
est privilege. In this way we follow in the foot- 
steps of the Master whose gift for humanity was the 
outpouring of his life — the giving of himself in serv- 
ice and in sacrifice. 

The author has departed widely from the beaten 
track, and instead of abstract descriptions of manners 
and customs, she has, by a series of true stories, in- 
troduced the reader to the real home life of the 
common people. 

We learn from these stories that the mind of the 
Oriental is not essentially different from that of the 
Occidental. New and better means of communication 
have made the world much smaller than it used to 
be, and we are coming to realize more fully that 
notwithstanding racial distinctions, 

" One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 
The story of A'Chu and the baby made fat by his 
self-denial illustrates the heroism of everyday exist- 
ence in China. 

From the first chapter to the close, there is not 
a dull or tiresome sketch in the book. As we read, 
we find the author taking us along with her through 
the experiences she describes. 

We make journeys by wheelbarrow, sedan chair, 
jinrikisha, the " rice-power " boats, and the mule cart. 

7 



8 A'Chu and Other Stories 

We visit the heart of China by steamship and rail. 

We stay for a time in Canton, and become acquainted 
with the boat people, who live on the rivers, and use 
for all purposes the muddy, polluted water. 

We spend an instructive hour in a native village, 
and learn how the people live. 

We see great strings of " cash," the most common 
coin of the country, giving a first impression of " plenty 
of money," until we learn that each piece is worth 
only about one twentieth of a cent. 

A visit to a boys' school gives an insight into edu- 
cational methods in China. , 

We become acquainted with the salt merchant, and 
learn that business failures are not confined to the 
West. 

We witness betrothal and marriage, and sympathize 
with the child wives. 

We learn the religious customs of old China, see the 
ancestral tablets, and witness acts of ancestral worship. 

We attend a birthday party for an idol, and learn 
the trouble that comes from cherishing wrong imagi- 
nations. 

Then comes the climax. Against the dark back- 
ground of Chinese paganism we are made to feel the 
vital power of a life changed by the religion of Jesus 
Christ, as exemplified in the daily walk of a steadfast 
Christian. 

If these stories shall serve to broaden the vision of 
those who read them ; if they shall stir hearts to lay 
their best upon the altar of service, as the author of 
this little book has done; if the missionary spirit shall 
be strengthened in behalf of this great people, the 
hope entertained by author and publisher will have 
been realized. The Publishers. 



CONTENTS 

A'Chu — How He Helped to Make the Baby 

Fat - - 15 

MODES OF TRAVEL IN CHINA 

The Voyage to China 23 

Getting Used to Strange Methods of Travel 37 

By Steamship and Rail to Central China 49 

With Mule Carts and Drivers 65 

A Wheelbarrow Trip - 83 

A Journey in a House-Boat 95 

THE CHINESE AND HOW THEY LIVE 

The Origin of the Chinese - 103 

China's Name of Promise - 109 

Canton from Day to Day - - - 1 13 

One Hour in a Native Village - - 131 

FORTUNES OF THE CHANG FAMILY 

The Salt Merchant's Son - - - • - 153 

The Boy's School Days - 159 

A Genuine Chinese Boy - 165 

The Betrothal - - - - - - 170 

The Wedding Feast - - - - - 173 

The Ups and Downs of Fortune - - 182 

A Scene in Chang Tak Meng's Home - - 195 

The Game Won at Last - - - - 202 

STORIES OF CHINESE LIFE 

The Hunchback ------ 209 

The Sampan Girl's Lullaby - - - 215 

Chinese Infant Rhymes - 221 

The Betrothal of A'Lai - 223 



10 A J Chu and Other Stories 

RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS OF THE CHINESE 

A Queer Birthday Party - 237 

Ways That Are Strange - 248 

Which One Was Sick? - 253 

Why Amah Was Afraid in the Tent - 255 

What the Water Carrier Feared - - 259 

Why the Farmer's Mule Balked - - 261 

Matching Wits with the Spirits - - 265 

A Beggar in the Spirit World - - - 270' 

The Worship of Ancestors - 273 

The Fung-Shui 285 

REAL TROUBLES FROM WRONG 
IMAGINATIONS 

Where Was the Pearl? - 299 

The Haunted House - 303 

The Trouble That Came to the Carpenter's 

Wife - - - - - - - 308 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL 

The Sign Over the Door - - 313 

Deliverance of Keh Cheng Soan and His Son 318 

How a Kidnapped Boy Was Found - - 329 

Wang's Choice - - - - - - 335 

The School Around a Rice Sieve - - 339 

The Influence of a Changed Life - - 345 

A Steadfast Christian - - - - - 351 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Umbrella Pagoda, Peking - - - • - -2 

Mission Children of Canton 6 

Seventh - day Adventist Missionaries and Chinese 

Believers - - 14 

Girls in Bethel School, Canton 22 

A Section of Hongkong and the Hill Beyond - 32 
Chinese Junk Under Full Sail - - • - - - 36 
A Wheelbarrow Trip in the Interior of China - 44 

House-Boats . . . 48 

Pretty Charm of a Chinese City Street - - 62 

Traveling by Wheelbarrow - - - - - - 82 

Evangelist Fan Den Djuiu ----- 91 

Scene on a Canal 94 

The Home and Family of a Wealthy Chinaman - 102 
City Wall and Gate ....... 108 

A " Flower Boat " Ready for an Excursion - - 112 
Looking Down into Shappat-po Street, Canton - - 114 
Harbor of Canton, Junks in the Offing - - - 118 

Chinese Children 120 

A Wayside Booth Restaurant in Canton - - 122 

Highest Point in China's Great Wall - - - 130 

A Chinese Gentleman 152 

Salt Mines and Refinery ------- 154 

Sawing Lumber in a Chinese Mill - - - 164 

A " Lily-Footed " Woman ------ 174 

Bridal Procession - - 176 

Where Wealthy Natives Pass the Time - - - 194 
" Lily-Footed " Girl Being Carried by Her Servant - 211 
A Scene at Kating -------- 222 

Chinese Farms 228 

Interior of Idol Temple - 236 

The King of Beggars ------- 245 

Noonday Lunch on the Hillside 256 

Loaded with Cases of Tea - - - - - - 266 

An Ancestral Hall 278 

Paper House for the Dead 281 

A Feast-Day Scene - - - - - - - 296 

Chinese Mother and Child -.■--.. 298 

Boys' School at Amoy 304 

Native Bible Woman, Canton - - - - 312 

View of Amoy - - 324 

Chan Sit Yin, Another Bible Student - - - 334 
Seventh-day Adventist Chapel, Shanghai - - - 344 
Evangelist Djou and His Wife - - - - . - 350 
Gospel Boat at Swatow - - - - - - 354 

11 



12 A J Chu and Other Stories 

SMALL ILLUSTRATIONS 

Stanley and A'Chu ------- 17 

Hawaiian Oechestra ------- 25 

Children of Bethel School - - - - - - 27 

Taeko Miyake - - 30 

Sanitarium in Kobe, Japan 31 

Steamship " China " 35 

Pearl River and Shipping at Changsha - - - 38 

" Rice-Power " Boat 39 

A Chinese Water Wheel 41 

Chinese Sedan Chairs 42 

Jinrikishas Waiting Before a Rich Native Bazaar 

in Shanghai 45 

Queen's Road, Shanghai 52 

A Street Car in Shanghai 53 

Beggars' Huts - 54 

" Little Orphan " 57 

Train from Hankow to Peking 59 

Mule Cart - 67 

Road Cut Deep by Centuries of Travel - - - 73 

Traveling by Ox Cart 78 

A Wheelbarrow Trip in Honan - - - - - 88 
An Arched Bridge - - - - - - - 89 

Raft on the Yguazu River 93 

River Front near Changsha Mission 99 

Pagoda, Temple, and Monastery near Canton - - 105 

View of Pearl River - - 115 

House-Boat Boys Having Their Picture Taken - - 117 
Artificial Grottoes in a Tea Garden, Changsha - 124 
A Sedan Chair Ride in the Hills near Hongkong - 127 
A Christian Procession in Heathen China - - 129 
Repairing House for a Mission Home - 132 

City Wall and Gate at Waichow ... - 133 

Mat Houses 135 

A Chinese Peddler 139 

Around the Rice Bowl 141 

Rice Field and Country Village - 142 

Street in a Chinese City 144 

Primitive Grist Mill - 146 

Grinding Flour with Water Buffalo - 147 

Strings of Chinese Cash Pieces - 149 

Freight and Passenger Boat 155 

Chinese Schoolboys 160 

Examination Hall, Canton 161 

Schoolroom in a Temple ------ 163 

Chinese Schoolboy 166 

Waiting to Be Taught 167 

Bride and Groom 179 

Carrying the Bride to Her New Home - - - 181 



List of Illustrations 13 

Sewing for the First Son 186 

Wealthy Village Home Ready for the New Year - 189 

A Chinese Doctor 190 

In an Opium Den 191 

Fields of Poppies - - - 193 

Telling Fortunes by the Palm ----- 202 
Girls in a Mission School ------ 203 

Cargo Boats 216 

Little Chinese Girl Carrying Baby - 217 

Women Carriers 224 

Women Unloading Cargo 224 

Gathering Fuel 226 

Buddhist Priests at Worship 239 

Hall of the Five Hundred Genii .... 242 
Professional Ear Cleaner ------ 250 

In the Barber Shop - • 251 

Mother and Daughter 252 

A Rope Factory 254 

Woman Water Carrier - - - - - - - 258 

Coolies Carrying Cases of Oil 262 

Port Arthur Harbor, Manchuria - - - - - 264 
Mission in Kiangsu ------- 269 

The Roadway to Ming Tombs 272 

Stone Elephant 274 

Stone Guards 275 

View of a Street in Nanking 286 

Native Style of Architecture 287 

Tombs for Temporary Interment While Waiting for 

" Lucky Ground " 289 

A Chinese Deed - - - - . - - - - 291 

Fishing - 293 

A Little Burden Bearer 301 

Flour Mill and Rice Fields 302 

Our First Hakka Students 306 

Native Evangelists - - - - - - - 307 

Homes in Changsha - - 310 

A Colporteur --------- 314 

A Seeker for Truth 315 

Left Out in the Sun 319 

Keh Nga Pit and His Family 322 

Street in a Chinese Village 326 

Itinerating with Wheelbarrow, Bedding, and Books 340 

Interior of Chapel, Shanghai 347 

Chinese Evangelist with Bookstand and Chart - 348 
Studying the Bible ------- 349 

The Bamboo Mat Tabernacle ----- 352 

Shangtsai Hsien Mission 356 

A Chinese Writing Box 357 

School Girls, Honan 358 



A'CHU — HOW HE HELPED TO MAKE THE 
BABY FAT 

A'CHU and his sister live with their father and 
mother and aged grandmother on the street back 
of the old mission chapel. The house is small. There 
is but one room on the ground floor, and a tiny attic 
under the roof in the west gable. 

At any time of day A'Chu's mother may be seen 
seated on a low bamboo stool. All day long she is busy 
weaving the small rush mats used for wrapping tea boxes 
for shipment. The sister sits near on a piece of matting 
spread out on the red brick floor. She patiently turns the 
bushy ends of the rushes, pushing them back between the 
woven strands, so binding the edges smooth and strong. 
By working steadily she is able to bind off ten mats in 
a day, and receives a copper cash piece for each mat; 
This amounts to one-half cent for the day's work. 
That is not much, you say; but every little helps, and 
mother receives but ten cents for her day's work. 

The Chang family have not always been so pinched. 
Once they lived in a fine house on one of the big streets. 
A'Chu was dressed in silk every day, with white stock- 
ings and black satin shoes. His sister, too, wore dainty 
clothes. Then there was always plenty of good food at 
mealtime, with fruits, sweetmeats, and delicacies be- 
tween meals. 

The father, Chang, kept a gay house those days. 
Rich men and rich men's sons came to sit and play — 
to gamble with dice and cards and other games, and 
afterward to smoke the dreadful opium till they fell 

15 



16 A'Chu and Other Stories 

asleep, stupid as drunken men. Plenty of money came 
into Chang's hands from these vices of his countrymen, 
and he spent it freely. 

Then came the day when all the opium dens, as such 
places are called, were closed throughout the city. No 
one was allowed to sell the horrible drug any more. 
Chang's gay house was closed, and a big red paper seal 
was pasted on the front door. 

A'Chu's father had never worked, and he was not 
willing to work now. He expected, rather, to get rich 
quickly without toil. While his family struggled for 
their daily food, Chang spent his time gambling and 
betting. He was always waiting for the " lucky day " 
when he should become rich all at once. 

For some time, of late, Mrs. Chang had been looking 
pale, but the soft light in her dark eyes and the smile 
about her thin lips showed plainly that some new, sweet 
hope cheered her sad heart. Later she was gone from 
the place near the door. The bamboo stool was set 
back against the brick wall where several unfinished mats 
lay in a heap with bundles of dried rushes. A'Chu 
tried his best to sweep away the litter with a heavy, 
awkward broom of bamboo splints. Fung Mui, with 
steaming cups and bowls, passed quietly back and forth 
from the dingy, dark little cook-house in the rear, up the 
narrow, steep stairs to the tiny bedroom in the attic. 
Mrs. Chang's sweet daydream had come true. Up 
there in the attic she snuggled close to her heart a 
newborn baby boy. 

Some days had passed since A'Chu left at our garden 
gate news that a baby brother had come to his home. 
How happy he had been that day! His little black eyes 
fairly danced, and his chubby brown feet kept time to 



How He Helped to Make the Baby Fat 17 

the music of his words. Its tiny ears, soft little fin- 
gers, fat feet, and thick black hair were described in 
glowing words by the delighted elder brother. 

Today as A'Chu stood outside the gate he seemed 
quite changed. His round face was thinner, rather pale, 
and much more sober than usual. His arms hung limp 
at his sides, and his bare feet clung to the paving stones. 




STANLEY AND A'CHU 



The dark eyes gazed wistfully through the crack in the 
gate. There in the cook-house, cook was lifting with 
a long-handled fork the doughnuts from a steaming 
kettle, and laying them out to drain. 

"May I have a doughnut, cook?" It was my own 
little boy that spoke. 

" Certainly; help yourself," and the good-natured cook 
motioned toward the brown rings on the tray. 

There was a slight rattle of the garden gate, and the 
two boys exchanged glances between its two leaves, 
2 



18 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" May I have two ? " 

" Help yourself," cook replied, pointing as before. 

The gate opened a wee way, and one doughnut was 
slipped through. It was gone in a moment, down, and 
out of sight. 

" How fragrant they are ! " said A'Chu, as he licked 
the last crisp morsel from his lips. 

The other doughnut was slipped out. 

"Such a good heart, you are!" gratefully returned 
the boy outside. 

"Cook, may I have another doughnut?" coaxed the 
boy on the inside. 

" Help yourself," he replied, quite pleased with the 
way his products were going. 

" I'll take two, then, if you please," said the lad, 
selecting the fattest and puffiest ones. 

One more crisp ring passed through the gate, and as 
its last crumb disappeared, a fourth one followed it. 
The " feed " seemed to be enjoyed quite as much by 
the boy on the inside, who ate none, as by the boy on 
the outside, who ate all. The gate was opened wide, 
and the two boys stood talking very earnestly in low 
tones. 

"May I help myself to two more?" proposed the 
insider. 

Cook evidently took the request as a compliment, and 
returned a broad grin that revealed the full double 
row of his splendid white teeth. 

" How many doughnuts does a boy ordinarily eat at 
one time?" I inquired from an upper window. 

" I will tell you how it is, mother, all about it," 
returned the insider. He seemed quite aroused by some- 
thing I did not understand. Placing the two brown 



How He Helped to Make the Baby Fat 19 

rings in the red handkerchief spread out to receive them, 
he sprang up the stairs, calling back toward the gate 
as he came, " Be sure to give those to Fung Mui." 

" They must be very hungry," he began, quite out of 
breath as he reached the upper step. Then I heard how 
A'Chu was helping to make the baby fat. That day 
when the new baby brother first lay in its mother's arms, 
the old grandmother had measured the rice left in the 
brown earthen jar. There were just over a half dozen 
bowls full. This rice, with a piece of dry salt fish, was 
all the food in the house. In the tin money box were 
the eleven cents received for yesterday's run of tea mats. 

Together the young children and the old woman 
counted the cash pieces over. It would be four or five 
days before the mother could rise from her bed and 
come downstairs to weave mats again. Even then, the 
grandmother said, it would be longer yet before she 
could earn as much money as she had before. And rent 
day — the landlord would come for his rent just the 
same as before the baby came. 

What should they do? If the money were spent very, 
very carefully, there would be barely enough to buy food 
for the mother. She must have food, the old woman 
said, good nourishing food, or else there would be no 
milk for baby. In that case he would grow thin and 
scrawny. Yes, the mother must be fed for the baby's 
sake. 

The children looked at the wrinkled face, the thin, 
slender hands and bent form of the old woman, then at 
each other. She, too, must have something to eat. No 
dutiful Chinese child would take food while an aged 
parent went without. Young as they were, they knew 
their duty, and decided at once to do it. 



20 A'Chu and Other Stories 

A'Chu would do the buying. He knew the markets, 
and a boy could get about the streets more easily than 
a girl. The cash pieces were divided, and each day's 
allowance was strung on a string by itself. As he fin- 
gered the greasy coins, the boy felt keenly this new 
responsibility. He determined that each piece should be 
used to buy the very best the market could afford. Fung 
Mui would do the cooking, and plan the small allow- 
ance of relishes for each meal. 

" I found a very big egg in the market this morning," 
A'Chu had confided to his friend at the gate, with great 
satisfaction. " We gave mother a bowl of rice, some 
young tender bean sprouts, and half the egg for break- 
fast. She had soup made from a whole fish head at 
noon. Tonight she will have more rice, a little fresh 
beef, and the other half egg for supper." 

"What do you eat?" asked the boy on the inside. 

" Fung Mui pours water into the kettle after the rice 
has been taken out. When the crust boils soft, we eat 
that as soup. Grandmother must have rice. She is old. 
We are young and strong," replied the boy on the 
outside. "Oh, our baby is growing so fine!" he ex- 
claimed with delight, but in a whisper, . lest some evil 
spirit should hear what he said. 

The baby was now more than a week old. Without 
a thought of complaining since that first day, the two 
children had eaten nothing but the hot soup from the 
rice kettle. That was how A'Chu helped to make the 
baby fat. 



Modes of Travel in China 




GIRLS IN BETHEL SCHOOL, CANTON 



22 



THE VOYAGE TO CHINA 

IT is very plain that Jesus must have included China 
in his plan when he said, " This gospel of the king- 
dom shall be preached in all the world for a witness 
unto all nations; and then shall the end come." It is 
just as plain that if the Chinese are to hear the gospel 
of the kingdom, men and women who believe it must 
teach it to them. 

Many witnesses will be required to bear the mes- 
sage to a great nation like the Chinese. Some must go, 
and we who were leaving that day were glad of the 
privilege of carrying our gospel message to this far- 
away land. 

However, no matter how glad one may be to go on 
such an errand, there must be some feelings of sadness 
when good-bys are said and one really starts off to be- 
come a missionary in a strange land. 

The planning and work required to get ready for 
such a voyage keep one's mind so full and his hands 
so busy he cannot realize what is going on till his 
part is over and he stands on the deck of a great 
ocean steamer, a passenger ticketed to a distant country. 
The quartermaster strikes the hour; a deep-toned whistle 
sounds the signal; friends who have come on board for 
a look into the cabin and a last word of kind wish or 
farewell, hurry back to the wharf. The gangplanks 
are drawn up. The great engines doWn below pulse 
and throb with the desire to be off. Another, lighter 
signal from the whistle, and the engines are started. 
The ship moves. The friends on the wharf wave their 
handkerchiefs. But look! they are growing smaller and 
smaller! The city behind them is fleeing away! 

23 



24 A'Chu and Other Stories 

This is about what our experience was when, on the 
eve of Christmas, 1901, we left our home in the 
Middle West and a week later took passage on the 
steamship " America Maru," bound for Hongkong, off 
the southeast coast of China. The waters of San 
Francisco Bay lay about us, beautiful in the sunlight, 
while the ship glided out toward the Golden Gate so 
smoothly that it seemed the city and rolling hills of 
the shore line were leaving us rather than that we were 
parting from the farthest-west limit of our native land. 

The dinner gong sounded, and the captain urged 
all passengers to go inside for " tiffin," or luncheon. 
" No telling when you will get another square meal," 
he said. " There has been rough weather outside lately. 
We shall strike the swells when we go through Golden 
Gate and out to sea." 

The dinner was excellent. The first meal at sea 
is always a good one. Perhaps ships' cooks, like our 
captain, think there is no telling when the passengers 
will feel like eating again. They start out well to 
encourage them. The long swells which the captain 
had promised came with the dessert. Pie and ice cream 
were forsaken on the spot. Heaping bowls of nuts and 
raisins were left untouched. 

Most of the passengers went directly to the deck, 
hoping the fresh air might relieve the swimming in their 
heads and that queer feeling at the stomach. Some 
were wise sailors. These went straight to their cabins, 
and lay down on their backs. A few hardy souls stayed 
at the tables and enjoyed the rest of the meal, together 
with a good laugh at their seasick fellow passengers. 

The swells kept coming, faster, longer, and the ship 
went on diving, rolling, shivering, just as if it took 



The Voyage to China 



25 



pleasure in torturing its voyagers. Our cabin trunk 
skated back and forth across the floor of the state- 
room, while suitcases and hatbox hopped about to keep 
out of its way. When at last we did manage to get 
into our berths, we were obliged to fasten ourselves by 




HAWAIIAN ORCHESTRA 

This band of musicians meets the boats from America 
bearing missionaries to other lands. 

straps bolted to the wall at the back, to keep from being 
pitched out. 

" She isn't loaded quite evenly down below," explained 
the first officer. " We put off cargo in Honolulu. After 
that she will ride more steadily." 

It was a week's run to Honolulu, but the passengers 
felt relieved to think it would be better sometime. 
The stewardess whispered, as she staggered from cabin 
to cabin, helping where needed most, that she had 
made a number of trips with the " America," " She 
always acts this way, and they always make the same 



26 A'Chu and Other Stories 

excuse for her." Before we reached the end of our 
four weeks' voyage, all the passengers agreed the trouble 
lay with the boat herself. Probably she was too light- 
weight to carry herself steadily in the deep sea. 

There were four in our party, — my sister, Miss Ida 
Thompson, Mr. Anderson, myself, and our four-year- 
old son. Miss Thompson suffered most during the 
week's voyage to Honolulu. When we reached this 
beautiful island harbor, she was too weak to walk ashore. 
However, a day's rest under Dr. Cleveland's care at 
the quiet sanitarium among the palms, did wonders. 
When we again went aboard, in the evening, she was 
able to " walk the plank " (which was really to climb 
a swinging stair up the ship's side) with the rest of us. 

The day in Honolulu was the Sabbath. The climate 
of this island city is always that of warm springtime, 
and the flowers seem never fading. The service that 
day, with a church full of warm-hearted believers of dif- 
ferent nationalities, — English, American, French, Chinese, 
Japanese, and native Hawaiians, — was like a promise of 
the great meeting day when many shall come from the 
east and the west and shall sit down in the kingdom of 
God. The surroundings of tropical trees and flowers 
recalled the promise, " Behold, I make all things new." 

During this first week of the voyage, Miss Thompson 
seemed to have completed what the sailors called 
" growing sea legs " (learning to walk on board a 
tossing ship). After that she was able to be up and 
to walk about some on deck. But our worst time was 
to come. 

The first day after leaving Honolulu, our son was 
taken with chicken-pox. In another stateroom near by 
was a woman traveling alone with four small chil- 



The Voyage to China 



27 



dren. She was greatly agitated at the thought of her 
restless brood being taken sick on shipboard. To pre- 
vent any danger of the disease spreading, it was de- 
cided to quarantine our unlucky boy. That meant 
he would be taken to a room away from the other 
passengers, and kept there till the last little chicken- 




CHILDRE^ OF BETHEL SCHOOL 

With their teacher, Miss Ida Thompson (upper right- 
hand corner). 

pox had disappeared from body, head, face, and hands. 
It might be three weeks. The ship's doctor would take 
him in charge, he said, and put him in care of a nurse. 
Or, if we chose, father or mother, or both, could go 
with the child, instead of a nurse. Of course we de- 
cided to stay together. 

We followed the doctor, and a number of cabin 
stewards with our luggage followed us. Downstairs, 
below the deck, through narrow halls, we felt the way, 
following the doctor's lead, to a room in the prow of 
the vessel. It had been rough sailing in our room near 



28 A'Ghu and Other Stories 

midship; what would it be here, where we should feel 
the first shock and returning tremor of every wave? 
For us there was no choice. This was quarantine quar- 
ters, and the doctor unlocked the door. Light was shed 
into the room through a round porthole below the deck. 

" Whew ! " the doctor exclaimed, as he entered the 
cabin. He threw open the porthole. The sea breeze, 
rushing in, drove the air confined in the cabin through 
the open door into our faces. " Whew ! " we echoed. 
We had heard all manner of disquieting stories about 
the kinds of patients that had occupied that room on 
recent voyages. However, this first whiff of air with 
its smothered odors of seventy-times-seven kinds of disin- 
fectants and fumigators, convinced us there was no 
danger. Shut up with those smells, no germs could have 
lived through the week since we left land. 

Our patient was not very sick, but we were. He 
spent a good part of the time waiting for the stewardess 
to bring the menu so that he could choose what he 
would have for the next meal. The slow process of 
marking the menu usually closed with the remark, 
" Wish this boat carried sugar corn and shredded wheat, 
'stead of "everything made of meat." The next hour 
of tedious waiting for the tray was relieved only by 
the sigh, " Wish that stewardess would come." 

As for ourselves, we could have wished never to see 
menu, stewardess, or meal tray. The thought of food 
was utterly distasteful. As we sat with feet braced 
on the floor and our heads against the wall, what we 
wished for was a breath of fresh air and the boat to 
stand still long enough for us to breathe it deep. He 
got his wish three times a day; we waited two long 
weeks till the " America " finally rolled into the har- 



The Voyage to China 29 

bor at Yokohama, Japan, for our wish' to come true. 

It brought quick relief when the anchor was dropped 
and the boat at last stood still. The air came through 
our port, sweet and cool. Of course it had been the 
same fresh sea air all the way, but how could we know 
it, with that terrible seasick feeling? Up above, every- 
body was moving about, merrily preparing to go ashore 
for a day in picturesque Japan. 

" Here's the number." It was the doctor's voice 
outside our door. 

" The quarantine officers," the same voice announced 
a moment later, when four strange-looking men crowded 
into the cabin, and began stripping up our patient's 
clothes. They talked rapidly in a language that to 
our unaccustomed ears sounded like ducks clacking. 
They shook their heads and looked serious. One of 
them spoke to the doctor in English. 

" No, no! " the doctor replied positively. " No small- 
p 0Xj — only chicken-pox." The ship's doctor would 
not like it to be said the " America " had smallpox 
aboard. Japan's new laws were strict. The ship would 
have been obliged to stay outside quarantine limits, 
and none of her passengers could have landed. 

The officers talked together again. They nodded 
their heads and looked less grave. As they passed out, 
the leader again spoke with the doctor, who looked 
relieved. 

" Well, they decided to call it chicken-pox," he said 
to us, when they had gone. " The ship will not be 
held up, but you are forbidden to go ashore or to mingle 
with other passengers while in harbor." Then he led 
us up to a part of the forward deck, which we would 
be allowed to occupy for the day. 



30 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



That was the last we saw of the ship's doctor till the 
sun was going down. The passengers had all returned 
from the day's pleasure of sight-seeing and curio hunt- 




TAEKO MIYAKE 

A charming little Japanese 

ing. The " America " was ready to go, but three of 
her officers were missing. After an hour's wait three 
jinrikishas came rushing down to the wharf. A row- 
boat was called, and with a great deal of fuss and 



The Voyage to China 



31 



trouble the missing officers (two men and a woman) 
were got into it. One of the men was in trouble. He 
tumbled into the boat, almost upsetting it, and lay down 
in the bottom while the oarsmen rowed to the ship. 
Afterward we found out the man in the bottom 
was the ship's doctor. His family had sent him to sea 




SANITAKIUM IN KOBE, JAPAN 

to cure him of drunkenness. While on board he was 
limited to the use of a small amount of intoxicants 
each day, but when in port he made up for it. That 
day the stewardess had been sent ashore with him to 
use a woman's influence to keep him sober. The plan 
had failed, and not being herself able to persuade him 
to come aboard at the time for sailing,' she had been 
obliged to send a messenger to call the freight agent, 
a steady, Christian man, to come and get him. 

By the time we reached Kobe, Japan, our little pa- 
tient had entirely recovered, and we went ashore with 
the other passengers. 



The Voyage to China 33 

Kobe is one of the most charming cities of the Island 
Kingdom. We had been told that the choicest porce- 
lains and potteries made in Japan are to be found here, 
and so we found it. The shops and market places 
fairly overflowed with tea sets and the many porcelain 
novelties this clever people know so well how to make. 
How fascinating they were! I wanted a trunkful for 
ourselves and a piece to send to each of our friends. My 
husband reminded me that more than fifteen hundred 
miles of our journey still lay before us. I remembered 
the bad antics of " America Maru," and judged that 
the dainty, fragile things would be shattered to crumbles 
before we reached our destination. 

Here, also, were the choicest and rarest of old Sat- 
suma vases, rich in the blended glory of red and gold, 
decorated with handpainting so delicate one must look 
at it through a magnifying glass to discover its real 
beauty. That is the way they were painted, the shop- 
keepers told us, — by the hands of skilled artists work- 
ing under magnifying glasses. More than before we 
wished for ourselves and thought of our friends ; but 
when the prices were named, we stopped wishing, though 
we prized them more. 

But tea sets and Satsuma vases were not the only 
interesting things to be seen in Kobe. The Japanese 
people themselves are far more interesting than all the 
beautiful and wonderful things they are able to make. 
This was the first time we had seen the Japanese at 
home in their own land. Men went about the streets 
engaged in business or bent on pleasure, bareheaded 
and clothed in garments that looked more like a West- 
ern man's bath robe than like a business suit. The 
women wore kimonos with sleeves wide at the bottom. 
3 



34 A'Chu and Other Stories 

This long, loose garment is cut so narrow in the 
skirt as to compel the wearer to walk with very short 
steps. A girdle confines the kimono loosely at the 
waist, and to this girdle a square cushion is attached 
at the middle of the back. 

All the women wore their black hair rolled away from 
the face in a stiff pompadour and done up in the 
smoothest possible manner in the back. On the street 
they wore white stockings and wooden shoes that clacked 
at the heel with each step on the pavement. Boys ap- 
peared to dress like their fathers, and girls to follow 
the older women's styles. 

All wooden shoes were left outside the doors of shops 
and dwellings when the wearer went in, and soft woven 
rush slippers put on. These slippers are always set in 
a row inside the door, awaiting the arrival of inmates 
or guests. 

We liked what we saw of Japan and her people, and 
could have been content to stay here and work for 
these people, but that our hearts were set toward 
China, where the need for missionaries was surely 
just as great. 

Another week at sea brought us to Hongkong (a 
Chinescname meaning " fragrant harbors ") , Feb. 2, 1902. 
The city of Victoria lay along the water's edge, and 
spread over the mountain's side to its very summit. 
" This is considered one of the most beautiful cities 
on this half of the globe," declared a passenger who 
had traveled a great deal in the East. We had not 
seen much of " this half of the globe," but we were 
quite willing to believe what he said, for this city was 
to be our home for the present. Before we left America 
we had been advised to stop in Hongkong for a time, and 



The Voyage to China 



35 



from there move into China itself when the Boxer 
troubles should be settled. 

Let others wish for " a home on the rolling deep," 
if they will. A month of it was long enough at one 
time for us. We had become so accustomed to the motion 
of the boat that it was realty awkward walking on 
solid earth again. But we were glad the voyage was at 
an. end, and more than satisfied that it had ended here. 
When we decided to come to China, we had supposed 
we should leave all comforts behind and live perhaps 
in native mud houses. We were delightfully surprised 
to find this beautiful, clean city, inviting us to make 
it our home. 




STEAMSHIP " CHINA " 

On this ship many missionaries have 
sailed from the Pacific Coast for the Far 
East. 




CHINESE JUNK UNDER FULL SAIL 



36 



GETTING USED TO STRANGE METHODS 
OF TRAVEL 

MANY strange things we find in this land of the 
Far East. Perhaps one of the most trying to get 
used to is the slow ways of traveling. So long as we 
keep near the shore of Old Pacific, everything goes 
well; but when we are obliged to travel by land, 
traveling becomes slow. 

Ocean steamers fairly swarm along the coast line. 
No less than four or five large steamship companies 
operate lines of transportation between England, France, 
and Germany at one end and Japan at the other. There 
are also several lines operating between America and 
these ports. Except for the nuisance of seasickness, 
one may be as comfortable these days on shipboard as 
in his own home. 

Besides these long lines of steamships which keep to 
the open sea, there are European, Chinese, and Japanese 
companies operating lines of smaller steamers which run 
nearer shore and stop at all coast cities of importance. 
Of course it is liable to be foggy along the coast, and 
the sea is rougher where the water is more shallow 
and broken by small islands and rocks, as it is quite 
certain to be near shore. Being smaller, these coast 
steamers are not so smooth going or so fast sailing as 
the ocean liners; but the traveler has no good reason 
for complaint against these boats either. They are 
comfortable and make good time. 

The same is true, also, when traveling inland. So 
long as one can follow China's big rivers, he may 
count himself fortunate. A glance at a map shows 
four river systems rising in the west and flowing to 

37 



38 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



the sea, within the territory of China Proper. All these 
large rivers and some of their branches are navigable 
for light steamers a considerable part of their course. 
It may readily be seen that these waterways form the 
natural means of communication over a large part of 
the most thickly populated districts of China. The 
Chinese are great canal builders, and to the abundant 




PEARL RIVER AND SHIPPING AT CHANGSHA 



natural watercourses they have added these artificial 
streams, which in some sections cross their country as 
frequently as public highways cross the prairies of our 
Middle West. These canals supply means of trans- 
portation to thousands upon thousands of small boats 
through country, cities, and villages. 

Passengers and freight brought out from Europe by 
the great ocean liners or picked up along their routes 
by the coast steamers, are transferred to lighter steam- 
ers and native sailing junks, which follow these great 
rivers and their branches as far as they are navigable. 



Strange Methods of Travel 39 

After that, still smaller boats push on with their 
cargoes, both freight and passengers, so long as there 
is water enough to float these craft. 

What the Europeans call " rice-power " boats can 
travel in more shallow water than a river launch draws. 
These boats also do a big business, for the traveler in 





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m 


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Vljs A 
f, 1 


V "i 


iiri - 












warn 




22* 


S?c? 














W' 


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" RICE POWER " BOAT 

There is a house-boat alongside, and a dragon boat in the 
distance. 

the interior of China is always anxious to get on his 
way as far as possible before being obliged to take either 
to the house-boat or a footpath. 

What are "rice-power" boats? 

They are low-roofed, broad, flat-bottomed boats pro- 
pelled by a paddle wheel at the stern. This wheel is 
turned by the tread of coolies' feet. The men are fed 
on rice. Do you see where the power comes from? 
Their speed depends on the number of men who tread 
at the wheel and the strength of the current against 



40 A'Chu and Other Stories 

which it drives. It may well be imagined that the 
rice-power boat never gets up a speed equal to that of 
the ocean liner. 

One of these boats seemed very slow to me when I 
started one morning with my sick child to go sixty 
miles to see a doctor. Part of the way we were towed 
by a steam launch, but it was sundown when we 
reached our destination. 

The slowest part of the journey is in getting started. 
You ask the officer of a rice-power boat, " Do you go 
to today?" 

" Yes," he replies. 

"When do you start?" 

"Not can tell." 

"Who can tell me when you will go?" 

"No one." 

"How shall I know when to get on board?" 

" Get on board now. When the boat has enough 
passengers to pay expense of trip, we will start. Not 
can lose capital." 

Sometimes one of these native passenger boats will 
lie at the wharf with the low saloon half full of pas- 
sengers sitting on the floor with their feet curled under 
them, and whistle for hours, calling for more pas- 
sengers. 

In the south of China there seems no limit to the 
number of house-boats and sampans that carry on traffic 
through the network of canals and small streams that 
spread out over the country like the blood capillaries 
in a living body. Sometimes the water gets very low 
or the stream becomes so narrow that there is not 
room to use the oars. Then the boatman — quite as 
often it is a woman — stands in the stern and with 



Strange Methods of Travel 



41 



a long pole pushes the boat forward. The Chinese do 
not count time of much value, and if the water gets 
too low, the boatman will thrust the long pole into 
the mud, tie up his boat to the pole, and sit down to 




A CHINESE WATER WHEEL 



wait for rain to come and swell the stream so that he 
can finish his journey. 

In bad weather the house-boat traveler must pull 
out the extension roof over the deck, put up the deck 
side boards, pull down the side curtains, and hive him- 
self in till the storm is over. 

This waiting for the weather to change is almost 
unendurable to one who is accustomed to traveling by 
fast boats and railway trains that run on schedule 
time. 



42 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



In the south of China, when one gets away from the 
watercourses, he must either travel by sedan chair or 
go afoot. The sedan chair consists of a comfortable 
seat with a foot rest, closed in all around except in 
front, and a shelter overhead. The seat rests on two 
long poles ending in handles both in front and at rear. 





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; 




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CX JJ 



CHINESE SEDAN CHAIRS 



It carries but one passenger, and where the paths are 
narrow, as they always are in the country, a company 
of travelers must go single file. In the city, where 
streets are wider, companions may travel side by side 
and chat as they ride. The sedan chair is borne by 
two or more coolies as may be required. It is a very 
comfortable and pleasant means of conveyance when 
the bearers understand their business. They are trained 
to walk very rapidly and in perfect rhythm, and the 



Strange Methods of Travel 43 

chair swings along comfortably. But when the bearers 
do not know how to carry evenly or are out of sorts, 
the traveler is likely to go up and down like the dasher 
of an old-fashioned churn. 

In Shanghai one sees passengers trundled through the 
streets on large wheelbarrows. The wheelbarrow is 
used to a considerable extent in central, and northern 
China; so also are donkey carts. 

The jinrikisha is used in cities of the Far East along 
the seacoast. Look up this word in the dictionary. 
The New Webster says it is "a small two-wheeled, 
hooded vehicle, drawn by one or more men." Jin- 
rikisha is a Japanese word meaning, " jin, man ; riki, 
power; sha, carriage." This definition describes the 
vehicles used here, except that I have never seen 
two men pulling a jinrikisha. It is not uncommon to 
see one man pulling the vehicle and another man be- 
hind pushing it. A few jinrikishas are built wider, and 
carry two passengers. 

At first this appeared to me a very odd way of 
traveling. Can you imagine yourself seated in a car- 
riage drawn by a man pulling between the thills as 
you have been used to seeing horses pull? To be sure, 
the man is not harnessed so that he cannot get away, 
and you do not drive with bit and rein, but he uses 
his human strength to pull while you sit and ride. 

The first time I rode in one of these " man-power " 
carriages was in Japan. A company of us from the 
" America Maru " were going to see the sights. Every 
one else, by turns, got into a jinrikisha, and at last I 
took one. The ricksha man started. How he ran! fol- 
lowing the others down the principal street, in full 
view of everybody, the passenger in the seat holding 



Strange Methods of Travel 



45 




© U. & U., N. Y. 

JINRIKISHAS WAITING BEFORE A RICH NATIVE BAZAAR 
IN SHANGHAI 



to the carriage and he running till he sweat like a 
man making hay in the summer time. I had not told 
him to run, and I could not tell him to stop. 

I thought of those words, who " hath made of one 
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face 
of the earth," and my conscience did not feel at all 
easy. The ricksha men, however, took the matter in 



46 A'Chu and Other Stories 

a very different way. Each one of them seemed very 
desirous of getting a passenger, and quite as much 
pleased with the silver coin our guide gave him at the 
end of the trip. 

In Hongkong we found the jinrikisha the usual means 
of conveyance for the level district. The sedan chair 
is commonly used for the hills, though with a man 
pushing behind, the jinrikisha may make a considerable 
ascent. The jinrikisha is by far the more rapid, for 
the men run for long distances without stopping to 
rest. There was no other street service on the is- 
land at the time, so we must use one or the other, or 
go on foot. The average foreigner cannot endure to 
walk much in a climate so warm and moist as. that 
of the south of China. He must learn to use whatever 
means of travel is conveniently at hand. 

When one is ready to go shopping or calling, he 
steps into the street and beckons the jinrikisha man 
much as you might signal the motorman of a passing 
street car. If several men have seen the signal, there 
will be a scramble among them, and a race to see 
which can get to the passenger first. Usually he will 
employ the first to arrive, but he may select the coolie 
that appears the freshest and most nearly equal to his 
requirements. 

The jinrikisha man draws up his vehicle and drops 
the shafts to allow his passenger to step in and seat 
himself. He always carries a piece of slimpsy cotton 
cloth which he uses as a towel to wipe away the 
moisture after his run. Lest this very necessary article 
be lost by the way, he wraps it firmly around the end 
of one of the shafts or tucks it under the belt that 
confines his loose cotton trousers at the top. He gives 



Strange Methods of Travel 



47 



a twitch or two to the leather belt to get it into 
place, and to make sure it will hold securely for the 
journey. With this he is ready, and at a signal from 
his passenger starts off with a few long, easy paces, 
gradually increasing his speed to a brisk trot, which 
is kept up throughout the trip. 

When the sun is hot, the ricksha man is often clad 
only in the loose trousers and leather belt. His body 
is exposed to the wind and sun till it looks like a 
statue of bronze. If the sun is very hot, he may wear 
a broad-brimmed hat with a quaintly peaked crown. 
On really rainy days he comes out in a native work- 
ingman's raincoat. 

While we pity these jinrikisha men, we realize that 
they must do hard work. They have no other way of 
earning a living. Though they get very tired on a 
long run, they earn much more money than the men 
who work in heated engine-rooms and stuffy work- 
shops. Besides, they work in the open air and enjoy 
more freedom. When one is too tired to run, he may 
call another man to take his vehicle, or he may hide 
away where he will not be seen, to eat and rest. 

Gradually I have become used to this means of travel, 
also, and have come to count the jinrikisha a friend 
in need. 



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© U. & XL, N. Y. 



HOUSE-BOATS 



They are often packed together so for the night, or for 
shelter in time of storm. It is said that many children, 
mostly girls, grow up without ever setting foot on land. 
This also well represents the way these boats gather about 
a ship on its arrival in port. 

4S 



BY STEAMSHIP AND RAIL TO 
CENTRAL CHINA 

IN the winter of 1905 I went with my husband on 
a visit to our new mission stations in central China. 
At that time we were living in the city of Canton, 
in the south of China. A straight line from Canton 
to the farthest station would run almost due north a 
distance of one thousand miles. Such a journey would 
have required but two days' travel by a " through 
train," but there was no direct road, no train at all, 
and consequently we were compelled to go the long 
way round. 

The greater part of the journey was made by 
steamship. A river steamer left Canton in the eve- 
ning, and dropped quietly down with the tide of Pearl 
River into the wide-spreading delta of West River. 
Frost never nips the green of the many fertile islands 
in this great river delta. Sweet orange trees dotted 
the hedges of dark-green foliage between the level rice- 
fields, and golden pomelos swung low on their slen- 
der boughs. Banana trees bowed their modest heads, 
each crowned with its single cluster of pale-yellow 
crescents. 

The sampans and house-boats had snuggled down 
side by side in their night quarters, and the boat peo- 
ple were enjoying their evening meal. Sailing down- 
stream we passed quaint, slow junks laden to the wa- 
ter's edge with bags of new rice and baskets of fresh 
fruit. Although the last inch of sail was out and 
they were going with the tide, we left them behind, 
rocking in the furrows of our wake. 

4 49 



50 A'Chu and Other Stories 

ON THE OCEAN LINER 

Early morning brought us to Hongkong in time to 
make connection with the great ocean steamer lying 
in its harbor. It was on its way from Bremen in the 
north of Germany to Japan. Through the Mediter- 
ranean and Red Seas it had come, across the Indian 
Ocean, up the coast of China to Hongkong. Today 
it would sail for Shanghai, and from there to Yoko- 
hama. Our tickets read, " From Hongkong to Shang- 
hai," a distance of 800 miles. 

Traveling by one of these ocean steamers is a com- 
fortable way of getting over long distances. When 
the passenger has secured his ticket and moved on 
board, his part of the work is done. There is nothing 
more to do but to make himself at home and enjoy 
the pure air, fresh with salt-sea spray. 

Breakfast will be served exactly on time. At ten 
o'clock the deck steward will pass hot broth and 
sandwiches on deck. The tiffin, as luncheon is called 
in the Far East, will afford a variety of foods in 
sufficient quantity to satisfy a " good sailor's " appe- 
tite. Tea and cakes at five, with a substantial dinner 
at night, finish the day's round of " eats." 

His stateroom will be taken care of. His berth will 
be smoothly spread with the blankets turned into neat 
rolls at the back. His shoes will be whitened or black- 
ened as they require, and everything will be kept in 
perfect order, if — if he will stay out after the cabin 
boy has made his rounds. 

The one drawback to ocean travel lies just here. 
When the ship strikes her nose into a high wave, 
she takes it unpleasantly and shivers all over. If 
the waves keep coming and the boat keeps on shiver- 



By Steamship and Rail 51 

ing, the passenger gets creepy. He, too, begins to 
shiver and to feel " queer." Next he is off for his 
stateroom, straight into the tidy berth. No promise 
of grand sights at sea, no sounding of the dinner gong, 
can tempt him out again. He doesn't feel like — 
well, like anything he ever felt before. 

The sea was not boisterous on this trip, though I 
think it is never really smooth going north through 
the strait of Formosa and the China Sea. The 
ship seems always to be sailing uphill and against 
the waves. Coming back, it is all downhill. As a 
matter of fa,ct, it really does take several hours longer 
to make the trip going north than are required to 
return. Being somewhat used to seagoing, we kept on 
deck and enjoyed the voyage throughout. 

IN SHANGHAI HARBOR 

Shanghai is a great center of commerce, and is full 
of interest to travelers in the Far East. Lying in the 
harbor of Shanghai, at the wide mouth of the Yangtse 
River, may be seen ships of many sizes, floating the 
flags of all civilized nations. See them coming- — 
launches, lighters, and tugs! They are heavily loaded 
and steam about busily. Slow-going junks and other 
native craft, also, bring out from the city's storehouses 
their share of tea, cotton, raw silk, vegetable oils, goat 
pelts, and other native products. These are loaded 
into ships to be carried round the world. Besides these, 
many manufactured articles, both of practical use and 
of luxury, are sent abroad. 

The city lies on the Hwang-poo River, near the sea- 
coast, and not far from the mouth of the Yangtse River. 
This river (the Yangtse) affords the natural means of 



52 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



transportation to the sea for all exports of the vast 
fertile valley drained by its branches. When China 
shall have been supplied with railroads so that her 
products can be more easily sent to market, the already 
large commerce of Shanghai will be greatly increased. 




Photo, u. 



u., N. Y. 

queen's koad, shanghai 



" This Shanghai b'long all-same New Yawk," boasted 
a merchant on board the tender which carried us from 
the vessel lying at anchor in the harbor to the pas- 
senger wharf in the city. " She do all-same big pidgin 
[big business]. She b'long vely lawg [very large] city." 

This merchant had done business in New York a 
number of years. In fact, he had learned his English 



By Steamship and Rail 



53 



there, but to the very end of his days a Cantonese 
never can learn to twist his tongue around our " r." 
He either drops it altogether or puts the sound of "1" 
in its place. 

FROM SHANGHAI TO HANKOW 

At Shanghai we changed to a smaller steamer, and 
rode 600 miles up the Yangtse Kiang (" Son of the 




A STREET CAR IX SHANGHAI 



Ocean ") to Hankow. Up to this point we had trav- 
eled 1,400 miles by ship, and were now a little more 
than half that distance in a straight line across country 
from where we had started. 

On the way from Shanghai to Hankow we stopped 
at Wu-hu to let off cargo. A mass of small boats 
filled with beggars calling piteously for gifts, swarmed 
about the steamer. Their clothing was tattered ; their 
hair hung in matted lumps; their faces and hands ap- 



54 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



peared not to have been washed in a lifetime. Their 
clothing, such as it was, was sufficient so that no one 
looked very cold. The faces of the children, though 
smeared and dirty, were plump and ruddy. The sight 
of them brought to my recollection a sentence from a 
lesson on beggars in our language primer: " If he really 
were as poor as he seems, would he be as fat as he is? " 




BEGGARS HUTS 

There are thousands of these huts in Hankow. 



I decided then that the small charities I could afford 
should be spent on persons I knew to be poor, not on 
swarms of beggars. 

Hankow lies less than 800 miles directly north of 
Canton. This city is a great business center located 
in the heart of China. If Shanghai may be compared 
to New York on our eastern coast, Hankow may be 
compared to Chicago at the center of the country. 

At Hankow we went immediately to the United 
States consul to register our passports for permission to 
travel in these interior parts of China. The consul 



By Steamship and Rail 55 

wrote down a description of each of us as to height, 
complexion, color of eyes, hair, etc. In case we did 
not return as expected, he would know whom to look 
for, where to look for us, and just which of the 
Chinese officials was responsible for our safety. It 
is very comforting, when in a strange land, to know 
that one's own native country is looking out for his 
safety wherever he may be. 

TRANSPORTING FREIGHT 

At the consul's was a letter for us from Dr. 
H. W. Miller. A shipment of goods ordered from the 
United States had been landed in Hankow, and was 
waiting at the wharf. Dr. Maude Miller, his wife, 
had been too ill to be left alone while he should 
go for them. They were much in need of the foods 
included in the lot, and especially of the heating stove. 
His Chinese helper, whose name I choose to forget 
rather than try to spell, would meet us, the letter 
said, at Sin-yang, about halfway, and assist us the rest 
of the journey. 

By quick work my husband got the goods released 
from the steamship company's docks, and a number 
of coolies with ropes, poles, and carts transferred them 
across to the railroad depot, a mile or more away. 
The car in which he was directed to place the goods 
was nothing more than an open box on flat trucks. 

"Will they be safe there through the night? What 
if it should rain?" he queried. 

The agent said their watchman would be on guard 
while the car stood at the station; after that it would be 
our business to see that the goods got to their destination 
safely. The company merely undertook to carry them. 



56 A'Chu and Other Stories 

The safest way, he explained, would be for the owner 
to ride in the freight car and look after the boxes 
himself. Then, noticing that one half of our party 
was a woman, he suggested that we hire a cheap man 
to ride with the boxes. In that case we would be 
expected to pay the watchman's fare going and return- 
ing, to supply his food, lodging, smoking tobacco, and 
wine money, as well as to pay him wages for the five 
or six days he might choose to spend on the road. We 
began to feel that shipping freight was expensive busi- 
ness. Just then an American passing that way stopped 
to inquire into our perplexity. 

" It's easy enough, and not so bad when you get 
used to it," he said. " Make yourselves comfortable in 
the passenger coach. It will be a part of this same 
train. When it stops, jump off, run ahead to the 
freight, and count your boxes. When the conductor 
blows his whistle, get back to your coach. Only be sure 
you have the full number of boxes at every station, 
and things will be safe enough." 

" But there is no roof on the car. What if it rains? " 
" There you must take chances. If things get wet, 
that's your bad luck on this road," he replied rather 
carelessly, we thought, just as if he had not the 
least idea of how necessary those fresh cereals, canned 
vegetables and milk, and dried fruits were to our 
missionaries living far away from the markets. He 
did not guess how eagerly they had been looking 
forward to the coming of those larger boxes, packed 
with warm clothing and other winter comforts for 
the workers at all the four stations. What a pity it 
would be to have the new heating stove red with rust 
when it arrived ! 



By Steamship and Rail 



57 



While these thoughts were passing through our 
minds, the American was looking at the sky. " There 
won't be any rain tonight," he said, " and probably 




LITTLE OEPHAN 

A rocky island in the Yangtse River, with a native 
monastery and home of monks and priests. 

not for two or three days, anyway." With this as- 
surance he passed on. 

A MIXED TRAIN 

Next morning the mixed train of freight cars and 
passenger coaches was ready to start north at eight 
o'clock. Two or three stocky Europeans walked about 
giving orders. These were Belgians, I understood, 



58 A J Chu and Other Stories 

for the road was owned and operated by Belgians. 
The work was done by Chinese, who appeared to be 
afraid ,of the puffing engine and clanking wheels. 
They were not quite sure whether they were run- 
ning the train or whether the monster might not break 
loose and run them. 

I had never seen just such a train. First came 
the engine, with its cloud of black smoke. The 
open freight cars followed, and after them came 
the third-class passenger cars. These were like the 
freight cars, except that their walls were not so 
high. The passengers sat on the floor of the car, 
with their luggage stacked around them. Even the 
shortest of them was not shut off from the sights, 
for he could easily look over the top. The second- 
class coaches came next. These were divided into 
small compartments, and each room was furnished 
with two wooden seats facing each other from front 
and rear. The seats were straight and stiff, but wide 
enough for the passenger to sit or lie as he chose. 
A window at one end of each seat opened to the 
fresh air, and an ample rack overhead provided for 
the baggage. The first-class saloon was in the rear 
of our coach, but a corridor along the side of the 
compartments was shut off at that point by a door. 
By this means the beautiful select drawing-room, with 
its crimson plush cushions and silken curtains, was 
completely closed against the gaze of other passengers. 
Our compartment being next to the first class, we were 
very glad for that door, because the saloon was oc- 
cupied by a party of wealthy Chinese. The fumes of 
their various kinds of smokes would have been very un- 
pleasant had we not been careful to keep the door closed. 



By Steamship and Rail 



59 



The train jogged leisurely through country broken 
by hills and dotted with villages. It stopped only 
at the larger towns, but made long stays. The pas- 
sengers — that is, the men and boys — usually got 
off to see the town, and the townspeople came out to 
have a look at the passengers. In getting started 
again, the engine coughed, the conductor blew a shrill 
whistle, and the passengers scrambled on, alarmed at 
the thought of almost having been left. Trainmen 
rushed back and forth giving orders and obeying 
orders, and at the last moment sprang aboard as 
though in fright of the moving monster. Evidently 
railroad trains were a' new thing. The adventure of 




TRAIN FROM HANKOW TO PEKING 



60 A'Chu and Other Stories 

stopping at a station and starting occurred each time 
with the same show of excitement. 

The instructions of our American in Hankow were 
closely followed. When the train stopped, my hus- 
band ran down the track to the freight car, climbed 
in and counted our boxes. Then he waited on guard 
till the conductor's whistle sounded the signal, " All 
aboard." " It's not so bad when you get used to 
it," the American had said, and we found ourselves 
getting used to it. It might get worse, we reflected, 
if the man Dr. Miller had sent out never met us 
at all. We could neither speak nor understand the 
language of this part of China. How should we en- 
gage carts and get ourselves and the goods in our 
care across country to the mission station if he were 
not with us? Remembering the saying, " Never trouble 
trouble till trouble troubles you," we put this question 
out of mind. 

A NIGHT IN A STRANGE PLACE 

Just before sunset our train pulled into the good- 
sized city of Sin-yang-chow. Some years before we had 
visited a^ mission station in San-li-tien, only a mile from 
this city. But the mission had been moved away, 
and most of the Christians had followed it to another 
city. We had been riding since eight o'clock in the 
morning, and had traveled a distance of about 130 
miles. That was by no means rapid railroad travel, 
but we reckoned that at this rate we should reach our 
rail destination early next morning. Imagine our sur- 
prise on learning we should not even start again till 
the next morning. Trains did not run after dark. 
Lodging for the night must be sought in a Chinese inn. 



By Steamship and Rail 61 

We had never seen the helper supposed to be wait- 
ing for us here, and had arrived several days later 
than was expected. However, as the train stopped 
and we stepped out, two men came toward us. One 
was young and tall and slim, the other was older, 
shorter, and fatter. Both were smiling broadly. The 
older man greeted my husband as " Teacher," and 
we at once recognized him to be one of the Chris- 
tians we had met on our former visit to this mission. 
This Christian brother had remained in the city 
three days, leaving his business to look after itself, 
while he waited here to make sure that the young 
man should find us. During that time they had 
met every train from the south, and searched for us 
among the passengers. They seemed quite as pleased 
to meet us as we were to find them. 

Eight o'clock the next morning found us again on 
our way. This time the helper insisted on looking 
after the goods. He chose to ride with them in the 
freight car. We made fewer stops and better time 
this second day over the level country. By the 
middle of the afternoon we reached Shi-ping, the sta- 
tion where we were to leave the train, and our goods 
and boxes were unloaded onto the platform of a 
little gray brick depot exactly like those we had often 
seen at small stations in our home country. 

UNFORESEEN DIFFICULTIES 

Now that we had been landed, the railroad com- 
pany evidently had finished with us. The agent shut 
the depot door and locked it. Before we realized 
what was happening, he had jumped onto a mule cart 
and was being driven away toward the village, leav- 



By Steamship and Rail 63 

ing us on the open platform in the midst of our bag- 
gage and freight. 

Our young Chinese was a trusty friend, of that 
we felt sure, but how much he could " do things " we 
did not know. We tried to talk to him, but he did 
not understand us. He tried to talk to us, but we 
did not understand him. He came close to my hus- 
band's ear and talked louder, and yet we did not 
understand. My husband pointed to the luggage, and 
whirling his hand round and round as cart wheels go, 
motioned rapidly across the plain in the direction of 
the mission. He laid his head in his hand, meaning 
that we must hasten to get to the mission to sleep. 

The boy was bright, and he understood, but shook 
his head. Pointing toward the village, he put his 
hand under his head — we must sleep there that night. 

Knowing that next day would be the beginning of 
the Chinese New Year feast, we feared we should 
not be able to hire carts and drivers for the trip. 
Pointing to the hour on the dial of his watch, my 
husband marked off the time — one, two, three, four, 
five hours and more before nine o'clock in the evening. 
The mission house was sixteen miles away. With 
speed the carters could make it in five hours. 

The boy shook his head. Pointing to the sun, he 
rapidly dropped his hand to the level of the horizon 
— it would soon be sundown, and darkness would end 
our travel. 

This dumb conversation had occupied but a few 
moments of time. We realized that we must depend 
on our Chinese helper. He saw that we had sur- 
rendered, and motioning me to stay with the stuff, 
he drew my husband by the sleeve to follow him. 



64 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" He knows best what can be done. We must 
get carts and haul our goods to shelter for the night, 
at least. We'll be back as soon as possible," said my 
husband, and the two men struck out with long 
strides toward the village. 

Up the track the mixed train was still in sight, 
moving toward the north. It had never seemed to 
go so swiftly as now when I watched it from my 
place before the little depot on the great rolling 
plains of central China. On and on it sped, the 
track growing narrower and the smoke trailing lower 
till it crawled like a caterpillar around a curve and 
beyond my sight. Far to the southward the track 
gradually faded to a silver thread over a dark streak 
of earth, and beyond, as far as the eye could see, 
stretched the unbroken level covered with winter's 
gray green. 

The village was a mile away. The houses appeared 
all of one color, and the straw-thatched roofs an even 
height. It looked like a patch of clay against the 
horizon, marked off at the top by a line of straw. 
The two dark figures grew smaller and smaller till 
they vanished, merged with the spot of yellowish gray. 
I heard cocks crowing in the direction of other gray 
patches on the landscape. From above came the soft 
soughing of the wind on the long wires overhead. 



WITH MULE CARTS AND DRIVERS 

WHILE waiting for the carts to haul our bag- 
gage and freight to shelter for the night, I had 
time to think over our trip by rail. This surely was 
an improvement over the way missionaries used to 
travel in China. There had been no heat for warm- 
ing the coaches, but by exercising briskly at times and 
keeping wrapped up the rest of the time, we had been 
comfortably warm. We had ridden 200 miles in the 
two days. From what I knew of wheelbarrows and 
had heard of mule carts, this was much quicker 
time than we could have made the trip by either of 
these older methods. 

GETTING TO NIGHT QUARTERS 

Toward sunset two mule carts with four very cross 
cart drivers pulled up beside the depot platform. A 
crack of the driver's whip brought the wheel-mule 
to a quick stop. Just how did he know the lash 
intended him to stop rather than to go faster? But 
he did know; he was used to the business. He plunged 
all four feet into the earth and groaned as he settled 
back against the cart with unyielding determination 
that brought the four careless animals in lead sud- 
denly down upon their gambrels. They fretted, but 
he remained quiet, meek-eyed, and firm. He looked 
at us reproachfully, as if he understood that we had 
violated proper custom by asking for carts on the 
eve of the Chinese New Year. Like a good dis- 
ciple of Confucius, the wise old wheel-mule appar- 
ently meant to magnify our rudeness by bearing it 
with patience. Or, what is more likely, did he un- 
5 65 



66 A'Chu and Other Stories * 

derstand the harsh words of the drivers, and suspect 
that for slight excuse their anger at us would be 
turned in revenge upon his head? 

The cart drivers were not in a working mood. 
They walked around the pile, pushed the boxes about 
a little, and talked a good deal. Finally they loaded 
onto the first cart enough to cover its bottom and 
drove out. When the second cart had taken on, in 
the same way, what it chose to carry, the heap on 
the platform looked just about as big as before. 
Their actions seemed to say, If we are compelled to 
work on New Year's Eve, you must pay for it. The 
guide motioned us to get in and ride to the village, 
leaving him to wait for further loading at the depot. 

The carters hopped on in front, one at each side 
of the cart, and a crack of the long whip started the 
team. Each animal was attached separately by a 
rope running back to the axle of the cart. Only 
the wheel-mule was fastened between the heavy thills, 
and he alone guided the cart. The road seemed to lie 
anywhere in the open space, and each animal chose for 
himself where he would walk and how much he would 
pull. Qnly when his rope slackened too much, a flour- 
ish of the big whip reminded the lagger that every 
cart mule is expected to do his part. 

Over hillocks and hummocks, along gutters, through 
rows of ruts, we finally arrived before the village gate. 
At this point the roadway narrows and climbs a short 
but very steep ascent to the arched gateway. A huge 
stone lay deeply embedded in the earth across the 
threshold. This stone was very convenient for the 
two wings of the gate to rest upon when closed. 
Besides, it completely stopped the space below the 



With Mule Carts and Drivers 



67 



gate so that no wild animal or mischievous person could 
crawl in under it at night. However, the stone pro- 
jected a full half foot above the earth, and proved 
to be an uncomfortable spot in the road. The drivers 
jumped from their carts and lashed the team into a 
run up the steep. Urged by another cut, the mules 
sprang forward and jerked the cart to the top of 




MULE CAKT BEFORE THE MISSION HOUSE IN SHAKG-TSAI 

The usual means of travel in central China. 

the great stone. It balanced for an instant, then 
dropped down on the other side. The wheel-mule 
groaned with the shock to his spine. So did we. 
It was almost nine o'clock before the last cartload 
had come up the steep, over the stone threshold, and 
into the court of the village inn. 

AT THE INN 

The innkeeper had agreed to allow us a room to 
ourselves on condition that we pay a few cents more 



68 A'Chu and Other Stories 

than the usual price for our lodging. We con- 
sented, though we guessed it was quite unnecessary, 
since none of the other guests would be willing to 
share a room with the queer foreigners. 

The room contained two stools, two beds without 
mattress or bedding, and a small table on which the 
lamp was placed. This lamp was an earthen dish 
containing oil and the tiny round pith of a plant stalk 
for a wick. Several times after it was lighted some 
member of the family came in to snuff the wick and 
to lift its tip higher on the rim of the dish, so it 
would burn more brightly. Several times a few 
drops of oil were poured into the lamp from the 
cruse beside it on the table. Each time the attendant 
came in, he managed to leave the door ajar wide 
enough to afford the other guests a peep at the strange 
foreigners. 

GETTING AN EARLY START 

When everything was ready for the night, we sat 
down to counsel in writing with our guide. We could 
not understand his speech, but though pronounced 
differently the written characters meant the same to 
both. 

It had required five hours to get from the depot into 
shelter for the night. At this rate it would be neces- 
sary to have well-made plans if we were to reach 
our destination the next day. No matter how ob- 
stinately Chinese cart drivers may refuse to travel 
after dark in the evening, they are usually quite 
willing to begin a journey before daylight in the 
morning. The guide agreed that we should start 
as early as possible. 



With Mule Carts and Drivers 69 

As he had no timepiece, it was left with us to 
set the time for rising and to call him at that hour. 
No alarm clock was to be had at the inn. It was 
already late and we were tired. What if we should 
not waken early? The tiny pith lamp did not hold 
enough oil to burn all night. Indeed, the quantity 
of oil allotted to us was already nearly gone. There 
would be little enough for use in the morning. The 
few matches we carried must be used carefully, or there 
would be none when time came to light the lamp. 
But all this worry proved useless, for at one o'clock we 
were wakened by the loud crowing of a cock in the 
next room. Regularly every hour afterward he roused 
up, sounded a gentle alarm, and settled down again 
to sleep. Shortly before daylight he began to crow in 
real earnest, and refused to be silent till he was 
put out of doors. It seemed that another guest at 
the inn had, like ourselves, been anxious to get off 
early, so had caged this cock under his bed to waken 
him by crowing. 

Although we had risen early and eaten breakfast 
at peep of day, we were disappointed that morning 
in getting off early. We had waited till long after 
the time the drivers had agreed to start, when one 
of their number came around to explain — well, ' to 
explain that his partners were sick' and could not go 
that day. Our guide went with him to inquire into 
the matter. 

On the face of it there was nothing at all the 
matter with them. There was no excuse for their not 
going except, as we suspected, the day being their 
New Year, the men were bent on staying at home to 
celebrate the great national holiday and feast. 



70 A'Chu and Other Stories 

Under ordinary circumstances we should have felt 
it our duty to respect their custom, but this was an 
exceptional case. It was very necessary that we reach 
the mission station that night. 

Our guide coaxed and bantered, but the carters 
would not move. He had a talk with the chief of 
the drivers' guild, and offered an extra price on ac- 
count of the holiday season. The chief said he was 
sorry, but really he had no way of helping us, since 
his carters were not willing to go. 

There was one more way to try. Again the men 
left me in charge of the goods while they went to 
the yamen. This is the name by which a Chinese 
magistrate's residence for his term of office is called. 
They had decided to go to the chief officer of the 
village to ask for carts. The mandarin very kindly 
promised to supply our needs, and at once sent a runner 
with orders to bring carts to the inn and see us safely 
on our journey. 

In a short time three carts, each drawn by four 
or five mules or small horses, swung into the court- 
yard of the inn. The haggle about who should take 
the big boxes and who be allowed the small ones, 
began again. The runner was finally obliged to call 
another larger cart drawn by more and heavier ani- 
mals. The carters were about as cross and noisy as 
those of the night before. In fact, they acted is if 
they might be, and probably were, the very same men. 

OVER THE ROAD BY MULE CART 

Snow had fallen the night before and now covered 
the slightly frozen ground. We had hoped that by 
starting early we might cover a good part of the 



With Mule Carts and Drivers 71 

journey while the roads were hard. But the sun, 
which came up beautifully bright and warm on this 
first day of the Chinese New Year, had mounted half- 
way up the heavens before our carts jolted out over 
the stone threshold. The snow had melted and the 
frost thawed from the ground by the time we reached 
a rise of ground some three miles from the village. 
The wooden cart wheels were blocked to the hub with 
mud between the spokes, and the animals pulling in 
front were breathing heavily. Something had gone 
wrong with the heavy cart, and it was lagging some 
distance in the rear. 

Our guide was traveling with this cart, and we did 
not wish to get separated from him. My husband 
signaled his driver to wait while he ran back to find 
out what might be causing the delay. He found the 
carter cross — that was where the whole difficulty lay. 
He had managed his team badly from the start, and 
they were already fretted and out of spirits. That 
cart would be obliged to take the journey slowly from 
now on, and if possible overtake us at a village about 
halfway, where we were to stop for lunch. 

My husband had been assigned a seat on the first 
cart and I on the third. From his high seat in front 
he had been able to keep up a signal communication 
with the guide as to when we were to turn to right 
or left, go faster or slower. Now we must go on 
without him, and leave the choosing of the road to 
drivers with whom we could not speak and who were 
unable to read the written characters we had used with 
our guide. To add to this discomforting condition, 
the drivers were still out of sorts at being obliged to 
travel on that day. 



72 A'Chu and Other Stories 

The carts in which we traveled consisted of two 
wheels joined by a ponderous axle under a box rest- 
ing directly upon the hounds without a hint of springs 
between. The thills consisted of two crude shafts joined 
at the rear by a heavy crossbeam. This was bound di- 
rectly to the axle. The whole gearing was without 
spring or coupling to break the jar. It rose over ob- 
stacles and fell into ruts with the solid jolt of a single 
piece of wood. The large freight cart at the rear could 
boast of four wheels, and was guided by a tongue to 
which was attached a pair of wheel-mules. 

Passengers usually spread mats, or if on a long 
journey, their bedding, on the bottom of the cart, to 
sit on. The Asiatic's supple joints suffer no incon- 
venience when he curls up his legs and sits on his 
feet. He appears to be perfectly comfortable any length 
of time in this position. Absolutely no seat is pro- 
vided in these carts. The bottom always tilts from 
the front toward the rear. One must sit with his 
feet uphill or turn about and ride backward, unless he 
can make a bundle to sit on or has brought a seat 
with him. A seat is not very practical, because it is 
liable t§ slide about with the jolting of the cart. 
. Perhaps, as one missionary said, " the easiest way to 
sit in a cart is to lie down." 

With us there was no choice as to how we should 
sit, nor where. The boxes of goods we were carrying 
through to the mission were piled high over the axle 
to balance the load, and we were given seats on large 
boxes placed at the very front as a balance to keep 
the load from sliding backward in the cart. Our 
weight threw the balance of the load forward onto 
the thill straps passed over the wheel-mule's back. 



With Mule Carts and Drivers 



73 



"How far to Shangtsai?" my husband inquired, 
motioning in the direction of the mission. 

" Sixty li " (about twenty miles), sourly returned the 
driver. 

The geographical mile is equal to about three 
Chinese li. Before starting we had been told the 
distance was about sixteen miles, and that with an 
early start our carts ought to reach there by noon. 

A glance back over the track we had left in the 
soft ground helped to explain this difference of opinion. 
If it were really sixteen miles traveling by direct 
road from the railroad to the mission, the winding way 
by which we had 
come would cer- 
tainly double that 
distance. 

On leaving the 
village we had fol- 
lowed at first what 
seemed to be a 
highway leading 
out between the 
vegetable gardens 
and small fields. 
Presently, how- 
ever, the road 
passed from the 
hillside into a very 
narrow, much 
worn - down bed. 
It is not the cus- 
tom for the Chi- 
nese government boad cut deep by centubies of tbavel 









■♦.; 


■-.■■■■ ..." 
- 






WBr^ 




: ' : .'"V 














■;/ *'~p4 






H^ ■■ mtki 


§**4\ 


' ■" "i§ 


: ;*V»i : t:«u , 




iw^ffl^WK 


;'* :/.'■' : ■ 




'■& 


t^ f;^^ 



74 A'Chu and Other Stories 

to lay out its roads and levy taxes to keep them in re- 
pair. Without railroads to carry produce to distant 
markets, most of what is raised must be consumed near 
where it is grown. 

These quiet farmers and villagers travel very little, 
and roads are not thought of as very important to 
their manner of living. What bridges are built are 
made at the expense of some generous inhabitant, or 
by one who has done a wrong in getting his wealth, 
which he hopes to atone for by giving it for a useful 
purpose. Needed repairs, likewise, are made by any man, 
either by one so old that he cannot labor at hard work, 
or by one who has a few leisure hours to spend in 
filling the deepest ruts or cutting a drain to carry off 
the water. The streets of the villages are cleaned 
(what little cleaning there is done) and kept up in 
the same way. 

Quite evidently this road had never been turnpiked. 
It resembled a gutter washed by the rains rather than 
a public highway. The thawing snow had run down 
from the higher ground at either side, and filled the 
hollows and ruts with soft mud and water that hid 
them from sight. In this condition the road was 
positively dangerous as we were loaded. 

After counseling among themselves, the cart drivers 
applied the lash to their teams, emphasizing the 
stinging cuts with more threats, and so forced the 
mules up the slope to the higher ground. After that 
the carts followed the highest level, winding about 
through grain fields or wherever it might lead. Once 
in a while we struck the old-time road, especially as we 
neared the villages, which often perch on a side hill 
at the edge of a rolling plain. At each village ■ — 



With Mule Carts and Drivers 75 

and in this fertile section they are not far between 
— the drivers stopped for a drink of tea, and filled 
their long pipes for a few whiffs of smoke. 

There was no sign of the big load when our train 
of carts stopped to feed. It was considerably past noon, 
and we had not yet covered half the journey. But 
since the drivers chose to stop here rather than where 
we had agreed to meet, we thought best not to op- 
pose their choice. All the time we were hoping that 
the guide, who knew the country well, would strike a 
short cut, and still be able to meet us at that point. 

The going was better just now, over a lighter soil, 
and we yet hoped to reach the mission before dark. 
My husband decided to lighten the load by walk- 
ing, and the drivers followed his example. The teams 
were double the strength we should consider neces- 
sary for such loads, but attached as they were, each 
animal separately and guided without reins, only by 
the long whip, one pulling this way and another 
that way, much of their effort was lost because they 
were not harnessed to pull together. 

COMING TO AN UNDERSTANDING WITH THE CART DRIVERS 

The carters had again taken seats on their carts 
and were urging forward their teams. My husband 
was growing tired, and signaled me to stop the cart. 
I communicated the word to my driver, but he made 
a sign that the foreigner's seat was with the front 
cart, not on this one. 

" Call him, then," I commanded in southern Chinese 
dialect, pointing to the cart ahead. Fortunately he 
understood or guessed my meaning, and sent ahead a 
call to the driver to wait. He even halted his team 



76 A'Chu and Other Stories 

and made way for the other to stop. Instead, the leader 
replied with a sally that set the others chuckling, and 
whipped up his team. They followed suit. My hus- 
band tried to run, but as he was facing the wind, 
he was soon out of breath and obliged to give this 
up. The soil was sticky clay. His feet were clogged 
with rolls of the soft earth. I could see his figure 
stooping forward and swaying with the effort. Still 
the distance between us was lengthening. The carts 
in front went rollicking forward in genuine enjoy- 
ment of our dilemma. 

I called to my carter to halt, but he pretended 
not to understand. When we had rounded this hill- 
top, I should be out of sight of my husband. That 
he could not keep up the chase much longer was 
quite plain. Even as we crossed wheatfields, the 
green tufts sank deep into the soil under the pressure 
of his mud-loaded feet. I was alarmed, and called to 
the driver to stop. He tried to look blank, pre- 
tending not to understand. Pointing at him with one 
hand, I reached the other threateningly into the in- 
side pocket of my traveling cloak, and commanded, 
"Stop jiow!" 

There was nothing in my pocket but a handker- 
chief and a long menthol inhaler with a metal nozzle. 
Maybe it looked dangerous in the hands of a foreign 
woman; at any rate the ruse succeeded and the cart 
came to a standstill. He argued with words and 
dumb signs that the other carts were going on. I 
shook my head, and kept the inhaler in hand. 

By the time my husband reached the cart he was 
completely tired out. I shifted to make place for 
him on my seat. The driver got excited, — No, no, 



With Mule Carts and Drivers 11 

he must not get on there! His place was in the 
forward cart. The drivers were already peeved, and 
we thought best to humor them. They were not hav- 
ing a happy New Year, and plainly did not intend 
making one for us. When the front driver saw his 
passenger coming toward him, he whipped up his 
mules and started off at a trot. 

My husband then returned to the rear cart. Here, 
too, the driver refused him a place, and raised the 
butt of his whipstalk to strike when the tired man 
attempted to spring to a seat on the moving cart. Not 
till then had we noticed that the driver's face was 
flushed and his eyes strange. Had our carters been 
drinking something more than tea? He looked like 
it. It would be foolish to turn one's back on a man in 
that condition. 

Too tired to walk farther, but still facing the 
carter, my husband sat down in the driver's own seat 
on the thill. This brought on more threats with the 
stocky whip. But he shook his head firmly, and looked 
the carter steadily in the eyes. For a few moments 
they faced each other, the one storming with anger, 
the other almost exhausted but very determined. 

The driver sat down in the wheatfield, as if to say, 
I will not go till you give up my seat. The traveler 
sat quietly, as if to reply, When you get me my right- 
ful place, I will give up yours. Finally the carter gave 
in, and drove his vehicle alongside the cart in front, 
and the traveler climbed to his seat. 

Late in the afternoon we passed below a native 
village nestled in a hollow between two gently rolling 
plains. It lay back against the slope without a sign 
of life, save a thin circle of pale smoke here and 



78 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



there where a New Year feast was being prepared, 
and two men carrying buckets of water on poles 
over their shoulders, from a pool lower down. Three 
carts in a row, piled full of new pine boxes, with a 




TRAVELING BT OX CART 



pale-faced foreigner at front and rear, did not pass 
their way often. Though the feast waited on the 
coming of the water in those buckets, the men set 
down their burdens and stood looking after us as 
if they expected never to see such a curious sight 
again. 



With Mule Cans and Drivers 79 

CROSSING A DITCH 

The front and middle carts had reached the brink 
of a wide drainage ditch and the carters were talking 
together. 

"How is your driver now?" my husband inquired, 
as he came back to the rear. "He may get sobered 
down before we get over this place. They have 
touched at the wrong spot. There is no bridge 
across the ditch, and the banks at this point are high 
and steep. What a pity our guide was delayed ! If 
the carts get through safely, we ourselves can ride 
across on one of the mules. They have unloosed one, 
I think, for that purpose." 

While he was speaking we heard a shout from the 
head driver, a bray in response from the lead mule, 
and a creak of cart wheels. An instant later the 
head cart was making its way through the ditch, 
which was partly filled with mud and water. 

The second cart was not so well managed. The 
driver shouted excitedly, snapped the whip over the 
animals in lead, then, himself sank back upon the 
bank, afraid to see what would happen. The team 
plunged into the ditch, snatching the old wheel-mule 
off his feet after them. The cart rocked and swayed 
for a moment on the brink, then fell to the bottom, 
completely upsetting the load. 

The wheel-mule lay on his side at the bottom of 
the ditch, helplessly bound between the heavy thills. 
The driver looked scared, realizing he might be called 
to give account to his village mandarin for his conduct 
toward the foreigner. 

Three very changed carters rolled up their trousers 
and got down into the cold water. They loosened 



80 A'Chu and Other Stories 

the mule. He wriggled his body out from between 
the shafts, got onto his feet, and shook the mud 
from his coat. But the cart could not be straightened 
up till the boxes had been moved. Large square- 
cornered boxes are not easy to get hold of. The 
water carriers, still looking on from the hillside, 
were called to help with their poles. It is said a 
Chinese can lift anything he can tie to a bamboo 
pole, but it was not easy to get these boxes, sunken 
to half their size in the soft earth, tied to their 
poles. The five men together tugged at the big box, 
but had to give it up. Then my husband returned 
from the village with a piece of strong timber. A 
stone was rolled down from the bank, and with this 
to rest the timber on, he showed them how to use 
it as a lever to pry up the boxes and roll them 
to the higher ground. 

Possibly they were glad now that they had not 
succeeded in shaking off the traveler by the way. 
At any rate, by being able to help them when they 
were helpless the foreigner had raised himself a long 
way in their estimation. They seemed quite willing 
to give him a place when the cart had been righted up 
and we started again from the other side of the ditch. 

The carters were now obliged to creep along very 
cautiously in the dark, keeping close together in order 
to follow the track of the leader. With a poor little 
lantern he had borrowed at the village, the head carter 
picked his way in a general direction toward the city. 
We had traveled far out of the way, and it was hope- 
less to think of finding the road again that night. All 
we could do was to keep in the direction pointed out 
by the villagers as being toward Shangtsai. 



With Mule Carts and Drivers 81 

Presently, there burst up from the plain a brilliant 
light of many colors. It flashed high into the heavens, 
and lighted up the country around. Distinctly, in the 
glare, outlined against the plains, lay the gray walls 
of a Chinese city. 

"There's the city!" "There's the city!" ex- 
claimed the carters in great relief. 

Shangtsai was welcoming the New Year by a big 
celebration with fireworks. From this time on till 
we reached its gate, the inclosure within the gray 
walls was for the most part a light spot in the 
darkness. Pinwheels were unrolled, long rows of 
firecrackers suspended at the doorway of homes and 
shops were fired, and Roman candles were exploded. 
China is the home of gunpowder, and the Chinese 
celebrate their New Year with a lavish display and 
variety of fireworks not to be equaled by any Fourth 
of July celebration in American towns of the same 
size. Now and then a brilliant rocket sped up into 
the heavens to return in a starry shower over the plain. 

An hour later we were seated with our friends at 
the mission, relating the incidents of our first trip 
alone with mule carts and drivers. 



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A WHEELBARROW TRIP 

BY J. N. ANDERSON 

N our first visit to the province of Honan, word 
was received at the mission that a number of 
persons living sixty li away, were interested to hear 
the message of the soon-coming Saviour. We at once 
decided to visit them. To go there we must either go 
afoot or travel by wheelbarrow. 

A walk of twenty miles over footpaths wet with 
recent snow, was not inviting. More than this, the 
missionary who was going with me was an older man 
than I, and scarcely able to walk the distance. I 
could not go alone. Plainly, our only way was to 
travel by wheelbarrow. 

More than a year had passed since we arrived in 
China, and in this time I had come to feel at home 
traveling by steamship. We were used to getting 
about by jinrikisha and sedan chair, and could con- 
tent ourselves even with the slow-going house-boat 
when necessary. The wheelbarrow also was an old 
acquaintance. I had known it at home as a handy 
implement on the farm and in the garden. But for 
traveling long distances it was an altogether novel 
conveyance to me. Not so to our friend, the mis- 
sionary, for here in central China wheelbarrow con- 
veyances are as common as railway cars in Western 
countries. It is not an unusual sight to see a train 
of twenty-five or more loaded wheelbarrows together, 
winding along over the narrow, rough, crooked paths 
thrown up for this traffic. Over these roads communis 
cation is kept up between large cities and the surround- 
ing villages, even to remote parts of the country. 

83 



84 A'Chu and Other Stories 

ENGAGING THE DRIVER 

However, before one can go on a wheelbarrow 
journey he must find some one willing to take him. 
On this occasion such a person was not easy to find. 
This was the Chinese New Year season, when every- 
body is supposed to have cleaned house, paid his 
debts, shaved his head, and put on his best new 
clothes. All kinds of business are laid aside for a 
week or two at the beginning of their new year, while 
the whole Chinese nation enjoys a holiday. 

But here in China, as elsewhere, money can make 
things go when mere words fail. We promised 
the chief of drivers 1,200 cash for a barrow on this 
trip, and immediately two drivers volunteered. That 
did look like a pile of money as it lay in a heap 
strung together on a hay string run through the square 
hole in the center of each piece. It really was double 
the usual price, but this was the holiday season, and 
we should expect to pay accordingly. We counted 
the pieces again, and reckoned their value in United 
States currency. It was equal to sixty cents. The 
journey would require the time of two men for 
two days going and returning, or four days' work for 
one man, in all. After all, sixty cents did not appear a 
very large price for four days' work and the use of a 
wheelbarrow. We were anxious to go, so a bargain was 
closed with the chief, who promised that a barrow 
would be at our door early next morning. 

THE WHEELBARROW 

These Chinese wheelbarrows are in general built 
like those in the United States, but are giants as 
compared to them in size. A frame built over the 



A Wheelbarrow Trip 85 

wheel is wide enough to accommodate a passenger and 
his luggage on either side. The barrow we engaged 
was a first-class conveyance, with a pair of handles in 
front as well as at the rear. Such a vehicle is pro- 
pelled by two men, and combines speed with comfort. 

The man behind the barrow wears a heavy, broad 
strap over his shoulders and attached to a handle at 
each side. He supports the load from his shoulders 
while he pushes it forward. Another man walks between 
the handles in front, balancing the load and guiding the 
barrow. He also wears a strap over the shoulders, 
but his strap is attached to the body of the barrow, 
and forms the traces by which he helps to pull the 
load forward. Sometimes when the wind is favorable, 
a square of cloth or matting is hoisted to serve as a sail. 
A second-class barrow is smaller, and is intended to 
be pushed by one man, with possibly a boy in front 
pulling by a rope. These are more jerky in their move- 
ments, and not so comfortable as the first class, Trav- 
eling by third class one pays only for a place to sit. 

After the passengers are seated, the manager makes 
up the balance of his load, which will weigh up to 
600 or 700 pounds, of anything that happens to 
be awaiting transportation. One often sees barrows 
carrying men or women and children on one side, with 
an equal weight of live pigs, poultry, odorous dried 
fish, sacks of grain, or a pile of cabbages, on the other 
side. " What others will think," has much to do 
with our ideas of what is proper. It is quite cer- 
tain a modest, well-bred Chinese woman would feel 
more comfortable riding beside a heap of pork or a 
bundle of cabbages, than to be obliged to sit next to a 
gentleman who was not a very near relative of hers. 



86 A'Chu and Other Stories 

THE START 

The drivers we had engaged were on hand with a 
strong new barrow next morning, as promised. We 
should be obliged to stay overnight in the village at 
the other end of our journey. In China, guests are 
expected to bring with them the bedding they will re- 
quire. Our hand luggage and bedding were distrib- 
uted on the frame so as to make a comfortable place 
for us to lie or sit, as we chose. 

When the passengers had been comfortably settled, 
our barrow started on the journey across a country 
that was beautiful even in early February. The day 
was bright and clear and warm, like the pleasant 
days of April in Michigan or Wisconsin. Indeed, it 
was the opening of spring in this part of China. The 
spring's work had not yet begun, for the holiday sea- 
son was on; but the rich fields, cut into small, garden- 
like patches, were green with growing wheat and peas, 
sown in the fall, to be harvested in May. 

After a ride of two or three miles our drivers halted 
at a small inn to drink a cup of tea and take a few 
puffs at their long wooden pipes. By this time the sun 
was w%ll up. The wheelbarrow men removed their 
padded outer garments, and threw them onto the load. 
Then each man took his place between the handles, 
slipped the heavy strap over his shoulders, and set to 
work in real earnest. For an hour we covered the 
distance rapidly. 

WHY NO OIL 

The Chinese do not oil their barrows, and the 
big wheel groans and creaks with every revolution. 
Lying on the bedding spread out on the big frame, I 



A Wheelbarrow Trip 87 

tried to imagine that this noise helped to soften the 
jars and jolts as the wheel went bumping over stones 
and rough places in the road. At least it helped to 
keep our minds oft these smaller troubles, for it screeched 
the loudest where the road was roughest. 

Let me add that drivers purposely omit oiling their 
wheelbarrows for what they think to be very good 
reasons. First, it saves the cost of oil. Of course it 
makes the barrow harder to drive, but where labor 
is so cheap, folks do not think much about trying to 
lighten labor. The second reason is by far the more 
important, — it is thought the noise of the wheel will 
scare away the evil spirits supposed to be skulking 
along the way. One who has heard the ghostly groans 
of a wheelbarrow train in the distance coming nearer 
and nearer till they seem to rise out of the earth at 
his feet, can easily imagine the noise would frighten 
anything into flight. 

Our barrow drove about four miles an hour when 
it was under way, but as the cost of refreshments 
is always provided by the passengers, our men stopped 
very often, we thought, to get a cup of tea or a 
bowl of millet gruel. 

Once I felt myself growing drowsy, and stretching 
out in the warm sunshine, fell asleep for a moment. 
Suddenly a quick jolt of the barrow brought me to my 
senses. It was scarcely safe to be off guard over such 
roads. If another jolt like that should catch me nap- 
ping, I might roll off into the ditch, and the wheel- 
barrow, thus suddenly unbalanced, would tip over. 

Sometimes the road was only a narrow, one-wheel 
track between fields. Here and there it was a turn- 
pike four to seven feet in width — wide enough to 



88 A'Chu and Other Stories 

allow barrows traveling in opposite directions to pass 
each other. Everywhere it was about as crooked as 
one can imagine a road to be. 

This has not just happened to be so. Roads in 
China are built that way for a purpose. Evil spirits 




A WHEELBABBOW TBIP IN HONAN 

are believed to be able to travel only in a straight 
line. On this account all roads are laid out in a 
winding fashion, twisting between the fields and knolls. 
The Chinese think this will throw evil spirits off the 
track, so that they cannot follow a traveler to do him 
harm. 



A Wheelbarrow Trip 89 

IN NO HASTE 

Farther on we reached a beautiful running stream 
spanned by a massive stone arched bridge. This 
bridge may have been, as our drivers declared, 200 
years old, but the stone arch was as firm as if it 
were but two weeks old. There was a comfortable 
inn below the bridge. Here our train halted again. 
My fellow passenger and I were careful to alight 




AX ARCHKD BRIDGE 



at the same moment so as not to capsize the barrow. 
Again the drivers refreshed themselves with tea 
and filled their pipes, but this time they sat down 
on some wooden benches under a straw canopy for 
a good rest. We began to think they were taking 
at least a half-holiday by the way. We knew it was 
wiser to keep still, so those of us who did not 
smoke contented ourselves with chewing and sucking 
the juice of green sugar-cane stalks, which we pur- 
chased in short sticks at the confectionery stand 



90 A'Chu and Other Stories 

near the door of the inn. The sweet juice was re- 
freshing, and the chewing helped us to keep from 
saying words better not spoken. 

The next halt was made at a village halfway to 
our destination. Here we stopped for tiffin. After 
the meal was over, we spent some time distributing 
copies of a Gospel of the Scriptures. The village peo- 
ple flocked into the street out of curiosity to see the 
strange foreigners. Each of these booklets cost less 
than one cent, but even so, many of these people said 
they were too poor — had no money to buy. Some did 
not care for our books, and many could not read. 

After this stop, our wheelbarrow men showed a real 
desire to get to the end of the journey. They drove 
the last half of the distance with but one short stop. 
Had they started out this way, we might have reached 
the large village which was our destination by noon. 
As it was, we did not arrive till four o'clock in the 
afternoon. A very comfortable room had been pre- 
pared for us. When the messenger they had sent to 
invite us gave out word the " teachers " had come, an 
earnest group of Chinese immediately came to be taught. 

SOWING THE GOSPEL SEED 

As soon as we were settled, our Chinese evangel- 
ist sent out his card to the most important men of 
the town. This card was a strip of heavy bright-red 
paper, bearing his name written in three large black 
characters, in a perpendicular line down the center. 
Almost at once, those who received these cards, began to 
call. Through them, word that there would be a public 
meeting in the evening, was carried throughout the 
village. 




EVANGFXTRT FAIT DEN DJTTTU 



91 



92 A'Chu and Other Stories 

That evening fully two hundred persons came till 
there was no longer standing room in the big house, 
nor in the street before the door. The company consisted 
mainly of men and boys, with only now and then a 
venturesome woman in a distant part of the room. The 
poor and the rich came. The docile peasant in blue 
cotton garments crowded close upon the proud mandarin 
clothed in rich silks and soft fur. All listened attentively 
while the evangelist told how the true God, whom he 
now served, is different from the gods whom he once 
served. 

The true God claims every man's love and obedience 
because he created us. Then he related his own ex- 
perience in becoming a Christian. " Surely," he said, 
" if God could save a sinner like me, he can save you, 
my friends." 

Some listened with deep interest, and one could 
feel that these meant to follow the speaker's advice 
and become worshipers of the true God. Others 
looked dazed and bewildered, as if, though they heard 
his words, they could not make out his meaning. I 
am sure they will come again when a chapel is 
opened in this village, as it soon must be. Others 
talked their disbelief aloud in the meeting, and 
growled about the foreigners who had come to change 
their long-time customs. 

The next morning the chief mandarin of the village 
sent his card inviting us to call at his residence. 
He received us with real Oriental display of hospi- 
tality. When this was over, and we began to talk 
seriously, he begged that we would come and open 
a mission in the town, promising to protect and help 
us with his influence. 



A Wheelbarrow Trip 



93 



We set out on our return to the mission with a 
strong feeling that God is opening the way for his 
message of salvation to be preached to the Chinese peo- 
ple, and that it should be our greatest pleasure to use 
every means in our power to see this work accomplished. 

The Chinese may be behind the times in using the 
wheelbarrow and other slow means of travel. They 
are slow in adopting the use of modern inventions. 
But in their need of a Saviour they are not behind 
us. Neither are they slower than we to accept his 
salvation. It often appears that they appreciate God's 
great love the more in proportion to the darkness out of 
which they are redeemed. 




BAFT ON THE YGUAZU EIVER 




© U. & U., N. Y. 



SCENE ON A CANAL 




94 



A JOURNEY IN A HOUSE-BOAT 

THE call rang out from the upper veranda of 
our home, "A'Ho! A'Kom!" 

The house faces the river, and stands only three 
or four rods from the water's edge. A long row of 
house-boats and sampans always lies in front, but 
we find it more satisfactory to employ a boat we are 
well acquainted with. 

" A'Ho comes," responded that person from where 
she stood beside the block of a fish vender, who 
dressed the fish on the spot and dealt out fresh sea 
foods. 

" A boat is needed, quickly." 

"Ah, so you wish a boat? Going to what place?" 
inquired A'Ho, looking up to the veranda with a good- 
natured smile. 

" Going to the steamboat wharf," replied the voice. 

"Going to the fire-boat's horsehead for what?" she 
continued, childishly. 

" Going to meet a friend coming on the steamer 
from Hongkong. Come quickly." 

" A-a-h, come before long," she promised, rather 
too indefinitely. 

It was one of those dull, damp winter mornings that 
come with January in the semitropics. While there 
is no sign of frost, the cold chills the thin blood 
and stiffens the muscles of the native people, leaving 
them little inclined to work. 

The boatwoman made her way leisurely toward 
the river. In one hand she held a small piece of 
fish and a very large white radish; the other clutched 
a sack of rice. The slip of white, fresh -fish was 

95 



96 A'Chu and Other Stories 

slung in a noose of dried grass and handled with 
care. The large vegetable root, half radish, partly 
turnip, dangled from a longer strand of the same 
tough fiber. No wrapping paper or twine had been 
wasted at the market on either of these articles. 
It was no use for the boatwoman to cover her pur- 
chases. Where house-boats lie so close together, side 
touching side, there can be no secret as to what 
the neighbors are to have for breakfast. 

We were ready to start, waiting at the small 
landing place before our door. The boat had not 
come. 

" Sampan, come quickly! What makes you so very 
slow? " we urged. 

" Fear the fire-boat not yet has arrived. We have 
not seen it," drawled the headwoman. 

" True, the steamer has not arrived, but it is due 
at eight o'clock. It takes a half hour to row to 
the wharf." 

" Not can go so swiftly this morning," she argued. 

" The tide is against us, very strong. About nine 
o'clock the tide turns, rowing will be easy then," spoke 
up one of the other women. 

" Cannot wait. The steamer is due at eight o'clock. 
Our friend has sent word he will come by this 
boat," we insisted. 

" No mistake, — I understand, — but he will wait 
for you, will he not?" she still continued, although 
we were already settling ourselves in her boat. 

" Our friend is a stranger here. He has come 
all the way from Australia to visit us. He would 
think us ' lost-manners ' [rude or impolite] persons 
if we were not on time to meet him." 



Journey in a House-Boat 97 

"Ah, the Western man is like that? You say he comes 
from the New Gold Mountain? 1 V-e-r-y f-a-r! " 
she mused. Then as if trying to think out just how 
far away was that land of gold, she asked, "The big 
piece fire-boat walked how long before he got here?" 

We were too much concerned with getting started 
to answer more questions just then. One missionary 
woman who travels about in boats a great deal asserts 
that during the last year she has translated a text- 
book for use in her schools while waiting for boats. 
In some country villages of the West River delta 
the boat people will not go against the tide. They 
prefer rather to wait for the tide to turn their way. 
At longest it cannot be more than six hours. That 
is not long to wait. At least it does not seem long 
to these boat people, who spend most of their time 
squatted on their heels, chatting. 

" Now we are ready, quickly go," we said when we 
were seated. 

" Not can go quickly. The current is very strong. 
Fear we need one piece strong man at the scull. 
A'Kom must help me in front. A'So is old and 
not strong any more," suggested the headwoman, 
turning her head to take a peep into the tiny mite 
of a kitchen where the old woman was cooking their 
breakfast. 

The blazing sticks had already been drawn from 
under the rice kettle. Only smoldering coals and 
hot ashes remained. This was a sure sign the rice 
was boiled, and was now left to steam till the 
kernels should become tender and sweet. The big 

1 This is the name by which Australia has been known since the 
discovery of gold, in distinction from the west coast of our United 
States, called the " Gold Mountain " for the same reason. 



98 A'Chu and Other Stories 

vegetable had been carefully cut into narrow shreds, 
and was stewing in a broad iron pan over a hot 
fire. A' So lifted the cover and stirred the white 
strips. A savory odor of vegetable in peanut oil 
passed our way. This dish, too, was almost done. 
She laid on top with particular care the piece of 
fresh fish hacked into three portions. Then the cover 
was fitted on snugly for the fish to steam. The old 
woman pushed into the fire the few remaining brands, 
and leaned back in her seat with a look of satisfied 
contentment. 

Falling in with the headwoman's suggestion of more 
help, we said, " Well, if the rowing is so very heavy, 
call another man." 

" If we call another man, we shall require more 
pay, shall we not ? " she parleyed. 

" That I do not know. You have one set price 
for this trip, do you not?" 

" Perhaps the Western man does so. We Chinese 
not do the same. Use more men, one must put 
out more money," she explained. 

A neighbor was called. He put into motion the long, 
sweeping scull in the rear. The women in front dipped 
their oSrs, and the boat began to slip out from between 
its companions. 

"Beg your pardon, may we pass?" called the head- 
woman to her seniors. " Step aside," she said to those 
of her own age, and " Thank you," as we passed. These 
boat people certainly have learned that people may live 
very close together and get on smoothly if they will be 
pleasant and courteous to one another. 

The tide was going out swiftly, but with two women 
rowing and a man at the scull in the stern, we made 



Journey in a House-Boat 



99 



good progress. The house-boat rocked steadily upstream 
while we sat comfortably sheltered by its arching top. 
At this early hour most of the house-boats still lay at 
their mooring. We passed close to the stern of a large 
boat where the family were at breakfast. In hot weather 
the morning meal is taken later in the day, but in cool 
weather an early hot breakfast helps to warm the sampan 




RIVER FRONT NEAR CHANGSHA MISSION 



family. Whiffs of cooked salt fish and the odor of salt 
vegetables, pickled after the manner of sauerkraut, was 
in the air. 

"So fragrant! Certainly a good flavor," remarked 
A'Ho. I suspect she was thinking quite as much of the 
radish stew with fish waiting in her own kitchen, as of 
the salt fish and sauerkraut in the big boat. 

The hardest place in the river had been reached. It 
is at this turn that the large American hospital and the 
tall medical college loom above their Chinese neighbors. 
The water swirls in making the bend. When the tide 



100 A'Ghu and Other Stories 

goes out the strongest, the current eddies and is swift. 

A loud, hoarse whistle broke from downstream. 

"The steamboat!" I exclaimed. "We cannot get 
there in time! " 

" Fire-boat is coming. That is certain," repeated the 
head boatwoman. A scared look came into her face as 
she repeated over again, " Certainly coming." She re- 
membered that if she did not reach the wharf in time, 
her passengers would be in disgrace. Their friend would 
think them " lost-manners " persons. 

" Row! row hard! " she shouted back excitedly to the 
man in the stern. He responded with all his strength. 
The big oar went to and fro with long sweeps that 
almost lifted the rower from his footing. 

" Sit very still and in the middle," she commanded us. 
The two women in front swung back on the oars with 
all their might. A race was on. Not a word was 
spoken, but an occasional, " Pull, pull-1-ee," came like a 
groan from the headwoman. Outer garments were 
thrown off, and their faces grew red with exertion. 

Better to have started with a little more energy than 
to make all this fuss at the end, I thought. But A'Ho 
would have replied to this also, " That is your way, 
not ours;" 

The steamboat slowed down. The house-boat shot 
ahead and reached the wharf first. 

" There is our friend on the deck, standing at the 
bow!" 

We knew him by his erect figure, his broad shoulders, 
and the crown of gray hair. 



The Chinese and How They Live 



THE ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE 

WHERE the founders of the present Chinese race 
came from, no one really knows. Some think 
their ancestors lived south of the Caspian Sea, and 
that they traveled eastward so long ago as in the 
century of the twenty-four hundreds before Christ. 
Others say, No; they must have come from the valley 
of the Euphrates, because in many ways the early 
Chinese were like the ancient Chaldeans. 

One thing is certain, the founders of China were a 
wandering people from Western Asia. They came to 
the East, driving their flocks and herds with them. 
Finding the valley of the Yellow River, in the part 
now known as the province of Shensi, to their liking, 
they drove out the original tribes and made themselves 
at home. Soon after settling in this region, they added 
farming to their old occupation of stock grazing. 

The earliest Chinese used picture writing somewhat 
like that of ancient Egypt. In these early writings 
are found picture words which show that the people 
kept cattle and sheep, and that they also tilled the 
soil. The shape and style of Chinese houses, especially 
of their roofs, resemble tents. This resemblance is 
taken as further proof that their ancestors were tent 
dwellers, and brought over this tent-style of architec- 
ture from their nomadic life. 

EARLY MYTHS OF CREATION 

The Chinese do not trace the beginning of the 
world to its creation by God, as related in the Bible. 
P'an Ku, their first man, is supposed to have come 
to life when all the universe was yet in confusion and 

103 



104 A'Chu and Other Stories 

darkness. He was given a chisel and a mallet, and 
left to make a world for himself to live in. Native 
paintings present P'an Ku as a great giant at work 
cutting the rocks with chisel and mallet. He toiled 
for nearly twice ten thousand years before the heavens 
and earth were formed. 

Three other giants followed P'an Ku, — the heav- 
enly, the earthly, and the human. These each in 
turn worked the same length of time. Finally, ac- 
cording to Chinese legends, the earth was finished 
as we now see it. 

After these three came Yu Ch'ao, " the dweller 
in a nest." He taught men to build houses to live 
in. Before his time they had lived in holes in the 
earth, in caves, and among the branches of the trees. 

Sui Jen, " the producer of fire," discovered how to 
make fire by rapidly boring one hard stick of wood 
into another. Then men began to use fire to cook 
food. They no longer ate raw food like the beasts. 
He also taught his people to count and to record ac- 
counts. Instead of writing figures in columns, — 
units, tens, hundreds, etc., — they tied knots in a 
string. The length of the space before a knot in- 
dicated its value. 

These stories are only legends or myths, and give 
no account of anything that even might have hap- 
pened. However, they do help us to understand that 
from those earliest times the Chinese have not known 
God as the creator of all things and a kind heavenly 
Father. Instead of depending on a Saviour's power, 
they have thought that every man, like P'an Ku, 
the first man, must work out his own salvation in 
his own strength. 



Origin of the Chinese 



105 



"THE ANCIENT BOOK OF HISTORY" 

Confucius, China's greatest teacher, undertook to 
piece together all the early writings he could find 
into a history of China. He collected accounts that 
had been preserved in writing upon strips of bamboo, 




PAGODA, TEMPLE, AND MONASTERY NEAR CANTON 

and with great patience and labor put them together 
in what is called " The Ancient Book of History." 
Two rulers of these early times, Yao (b. c. 2356) 
and Shun (b. c. 2255), are especially revered by Con- 
fucius and by his pupil Mencius. To the present time 



106 A'Chu and Other Stories 

these men are esteemed the wisest and most virtuous 
that ever ruled this people. Their reigns are regarded 
as the Golden Age of Chinese history. 

At this early period China had already become a 
monarchy ruled by kings instead of, as in the begin- 
ning, by merely tribal chiefs selected, like the judges 
of Israel, because they had proved themselves most 
fitted to defend the nation. 

THE OLDEST NATION 

Although these accounts collected by Confucius are 
firmly believed by the majority of Chinese scholars, the 
truth in them is so mixed with legend that it is al- 
most impossible to tell what is true and what is purely 
legendary. Of this, however, we may be certain: China 
is the oldest nation in the world today. Other great 
nations, like Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, 
long ago rose to the height of their power and passed 
away. Three thousand years ago China had become 
a great nation, with a stable government, having also a 
literature, a religion, manufactures, and arts, and all 
that goes to make up what is called civilization. 

Looking backward upon what she had attained 
in her Golden Age, the nation became satisfied, and 
from that time to the beginning of this century — 
1900 — she made little real progress. Today her gov- 
ernment, social customs, methods of education, and in- 
dustries are those of that ancient world, the time when 
our Old Testament Bible was being written. 

Today China covers an area of more than 4,000,000 
square miles, with a population of 400,000,000 people, 
but for all this she is counted one of the feeblest 
among the nations of the modern world. 



Or iff in of the Chinese 107 

GOD'S PLAN FOB CHINA 

China's people are hopeless of a future life, and con- 
sequently are careless of this life, because they do not 
know that it is given us to prepare for eternal life. 
The Christian can say, " Henceforth there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness." The non-Christian 
Chinese looks forward only to an uncertain future in a 
spirit world. There is no picture of a bright resurrec- 
tion day, with its meeting again of dear ones, before 
his eyes. He has no hope for a City of God, with its 
everlasting joys. At best he may hope that after a 
long time he will be returned to this world to try life 
over again in some other form of existence. 

Many of the truest and wisest of China's leaders 
today are saying that China is poor, and blind, and 
wretched, and naked, because her people have for- 
saken the true God and followed after idols. One 
has said, " There is but one help for all our troubles, 
that is Jesus Christ." 

Long centuries ago, while China was a great na- 
tion, still satisfied with her own ways, the prophet 
of Israel saw this need. He predicted that God 
would send help to this darkened people, and lead 
many of them into his kingdom: 

" Thus saith the Lord, ... to him whom man 
despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a 
servant of • rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes 
also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faith- 
ful, . . . and he shall choose thee. . . . Behold, 
these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the 
north and from the west; and these from the land of 
Sinim." 




CITY WALL AND GATE 



108 



CHINA'S NAME OF PROMISE 

CHINA may be divided into two parts: China 
Proper, or the eighteen provinces which occupy the 
southeastern quarter of the continent of Asia; and her 
five dependencies, lying to the west and north of these 
provinces. 

MANY NAMES FOR CHINA 

The name " China " is a foreign word. No Chi- 
nese calls his native land by this name. It is not 
known where this name came from nor when it 
came into use. Some say it was in use more than 
a thousand years before Christ; others think it is 
of a much later date. The Chinese use the term 
" Shih-pa-sheng " (the eighteen provinces) when they 
speak of China Proper. 

Chung Kwok (meaning middle kingdom) is the 
name in most common use by the Chinese. This 
name may first have been used to designate the middle 
part of their own country — the Eighteen Provinces 
— as separate from the other divisions ; but more 
likely it was applied to China as the center of the 
whole earth, as they conceived it to be. Their early 
maps represent China as the most important kingdom 
of the world, and other nations as occupying small 
cities or colonies on or around its border. 

Another name applied to China is Celestial King- 
dom, and the Chinese are sometimes called Celestials. 
This also is a foreign name. The Chinese never call 
themselves Celestials, nor their country the Celestial 
Kingdom. The ruling classes have sometimes styled 
themselves T'ien Ch'ao (the heavenly rulers, or the 

109 



110 A'Chu and Other Stories 

kingdom whose rulers are appointed by heaven). The 
emperor was called the Son of Heaven. This idea 
of rulers from heaven, however, is not peculiar to 
China, for rulers of other monarchies also assume to 
reign as appointed by " the will of God." 

Cathay is the name by which China was known 
to the inhabitants of Central Asia and of Southern 
Europe in the days of Marco Polo. This Italian 
traveler entered China by way of the desert of Gobi. 
He published an interesting account of his travels and 
of his stay at the magnificent court of this great 
empire. This name " Cathay " was derived from Kitai, 
a people who ruled the north of China in the tenth 
century anno Domini. The Russians, whose early in- 
tercourse with China Was through the country of this 
people, still call the Chinese Kitai. 

The Chinese are also called " the black-haired race." 
The people are proud of their abundant, coal-black hair. 
A native person who happens to have tawny hair or 
hair slightly tinged with red, is the object of funny 
jokes and slighting remarks. The Chinese call the Eng- 
lish, as a race, " red-haired men," because of their fair 
complexion and light hair. 

A native name for China is T'ang Shan (hills of 
T'ang). T'ang is the name of a highly honored 
dynasty of kings. From this name the Chinese call 
themselves T'ang Yan, or Men of T'ang. This is the 
common name by which Chinese speak of their race in 
the south of China. 

Another favorite name for China is Chung Fo Kwok 
(the middle flowery kingdom). A still older name 
is Wa Ha (land of the glorious rulers). 

The last royal family to rule China were the 
Manchus, who were of Tartar blood. The proud 



Chinas Name of Promise 111 

spirit of the Chinese chafed under the rule of the 
Manchus, whom they considered foreigners and op- 
pressors. These rulers styled themselves the T'sing 
(pure kings), and the country they governed, Tai 
T'sing Kwok (the great pure kingdom). 

Buddhists have called China by the Hindu name, 
Chin Tan (dawn). By the Mohammedans it is called 
the Land of the East. Both these foreign religions 
have found many followers in China. 

THE NAME OF PROMISE 

Last of all is the name by which Christians love 
to speak of this country of the Far East — the land of 
Sinim. This is the name China is called by the 
prophet Isaiah. Though he saw his own people ■ — 
God's people, too — going into captivity because of 
their sins and their unfaithfulness to Jehovah; and 
though he beheld the kingdom in which God had set 
them to be a light, given as a spoil to the heathen, 
yet the prophet was still strong in faith. In the 
presence of that calamity which was soon to sweep 
away his nation, he prophesied that God would again 
gather to himself a people from all parts of the 
earth, and with that multitude he saw a company 
whom he called " these from the land of Sinim." 
This is the best of all names, because it is coupled 
with a promise that the Chinese shall yet hear the 
glad news, and that " many shall come from the East " 
to " sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in 
the kingdom of heaven." 

When we say, " Thy kingdom come," let every 
heart pray for a blessing upon the men and women in 
China who are striving to bring the fulfilment of this 
promise. 



CANTON FROM DAY TO DAY 

THE city of Canton has a population of two and 
one-half million. It is the largest city of South 
China. This is where our home is. All about us are 
strange faces that look so much alike to us because 
every person has black hair and black eyes. From 
every direction come the musical tones of a strange 
speech that baffles our understanding. On all sides is 
suffering we would like to relieve and sorrow we would 
like to comfort. On all sides we see the effects of ig- 
norance and terrible superstition which only the gospel 
can uproot. 

But before we can gain the confidence of the Chi- 
nese people, or even become acquainted with them, we 
must learn to speak with them in their own native 
speech. It will take a long time to learn to speak 
well, but it will take a yet longer time, our teacher 
says, to get acquainted with Chinese ways of doing 
and thinking so that we can teach the message we 
have come to bring, without offending the people who 
hear. This great city is just the place to live while 
we study the Cantonese language, which is the dialect 
spoken in the two southern provinces of China. 

Our house faces Pearl River, and is three miles 
downstream from the Sha-mien, as the foreign settle- 
ment is called. Buried here in the heart of a great 
Chinese city, we seldom see a white face, but we enjoy 
getting out to talk with the Chinese people. It helps 
our ears to catch these language tones, and we are 
eager to learn. 

The people are very friendly, and too polite to 
notice the blunders we make in trying to speak their 
8 113 




© U. & TL. N. Y. 

LOOKING DOWN INTO SHAPPAT-PO STREET, CANTON 

114 



Canton from Day to Day 



115 



language. Judging from the correctness with which 
they guess at our meaning when we really do not say 
at all what we mean, they must be very keen and 
quick to understand. Tai So, the woman who lives 
with us, is different. I said to her, " Please turn the 
lamp low when you leave this room." 

A few moments later the odor of smoking oil spread 
through the house. Looking for the cause, we found 




VIEW OF PEARL RIVER 



a stream of flame and smoke pouring from the chim- 
ney of this lamp. 

" Did I not request you to turn the lamp low?" 
I reproved, rather doubtfully. 

" No, madam, you asked me to make it big" she 
returned with certainty. 

The difference lay in the pronunciation of the little 
Chinese word tai. Pronounced in one tone it means 
" low," in another tone it means " big." Perhaps, 
after all, stupid Tai So is our best teacher. It will 



116 A'Chu and Other Stories 

not be easy to forget, another time, which tone 
means " low." 

A Chinese city is very different from a city in 
Western countries. In Canton two million people live 
on a land area about eight miles long east and west 
along the river, by five miles wide from the river front 
on the south to the city wall running along the crest 
of a range of hills on the north. There are no tall 
buildings. The inhabitants live densely packed together 
in low houses, at most not more than two low stories 
high. The streets are very narrow, and there are no 
green lawns, no shade trees, no parks. It looks as if 
the population requires every inch of the space. 

When we first came to Canton, there was a crevice 
between our house and the fish market next door on 
the west. This space was less than five feet wide 
at the front and tapered to a point twenty-five feet 
back, where the walls of the two buildings came to- 
gether. A week ago some man decided to open an 
eating-place there. He built a wall of boards across 
the front of this crack, set in a door, and fitted a sash 
of glass window panes above the door. Two men spent 
a day sawing and pounding to finish the inside. Then 
a family moved in. Today that enterprising restau- 
rant keeper is serving hot meals on tables set in a 
semicircle extending from the fish market to our 
door. His patrons are many, but all the cooking is 
done in this tiny house built in the crack between 
our home and the fish market. 

The other half million of Canton's inhabitants live 
in boats on the river which borders the city on the 
south and southwest, and on the canals that cross the 
city in various directions. 



Canton from Day to Day 



117 



THE BOAT PEOPLE 

The boat people are always very interesting to me. 
Each boat is a complete home in itself, supplied with 
all that is required for this mode of life. These 
folk make their living by carrying passengers and 
merchandise, and are rarely seen on land except when 




HOUSE-BOAT BOYS HAVING THEIR PICTURE TAKEN 



they go ashore to purchase necessities for their simple 
mode of life. 

The river before our house is fringed with a border 
of house-boats and sampans at all times of day, and 
more deeply bordered at night. The inhabitants of 
these boats are our nearest neighbors on the water- 
ward side of the street, and very interesting neighbors 
they are. 




© U. & U., N. Y. 

HABBOR OF CANTON — JUNKS IN THE OFFING 
118 



Canton from Day to Day 119 

Just below the landing place in front lies a small, 
dirty boat tied up to a long pole thrust into a spot 
of sandy beach. That is a local ferry. The woman 
sits under a broad bamboo hat, balancing the boat 
with the big oar at the 'rear as her passengers step in. 
When the boat is full, she will pull up the pole, drag 
in the chain, and scull across to the other side. Each 
passenger will pay five cash, equal to about one fourth 
of an American cent, for his passage. 

A house-boat next the wharf is fairly alive with 
children climbing over its top and sides and hanging 
over the deck. One expects to see a tot tumble into 
the water at any moment. In this place the boats lie 
so closely together that one wonders if, should a child 
fall in, there would be room for it to rise again to 
the surface. One tiny maiden with freshly plaited hair 
tied with a quantity of pink cord, wears a wooden float 
dangling on her back as a precaution against just 
such an accident. If she falls in, the float will buoy 
her up to the surface till she can be fished out. The 
weest one of all is fastened in a rattan gocart from 
which he is struggling to get free. His spunky cries 
will soon bring some one to his release. Probably he 
then will be bound on the back of an older sister or 
brother, and so be carried about to join them in their 
play. 

The boatwoman dips up a bucket of yellow water 
from the stream to wash the rice and vegetables. The 
rice will be boiled and the tea brewed with part of 
the same earth-tinged water. Boiled rice, with some 
greens and a piece of salt fish the man has just 
brought from the market, will make a satisfactory 
breakfast for this sampan family. The chickens con- 



Mft 








* a*m 








■1^" ■ $1 jr~ 


% 




■•*■■■:$ • 





§ 



Canton from Day to Day 121 

fined in a tiny basketwork coop on the roof at the 
rear, cackle noisily. Judging from the fuss they make, 
one can well believe they are doing their best toward 
supplying the family with fresh eggs while each waits 
its turn to be served at a feast. 

Meanwhile, the boat is being scrubbed as prepara- 
tions for breakfast go on. The mother touches fire 
to the few sticks of incense, and sets them in the 
bow of the boat. Some more of the smoking incense 
sticks are set before the wooden idol in the family 
shrine at the stern. Thus the day begins, and it 
will be closed with worship of the spirits or demons 
the boat people fear. ,. 

A few paces farther on an old worn-out house-boat 
rests on the river bank. The broken hulk is barely 
able to support the rickety, arched frame over which 
has been spread a tattered piece of matting for a roof. 
Inside is a bunch of straw covered with several 
worn-out garments for a bed. Two cracked bowls, 
a teapot and a» cup, a pair of chopsticks, and a black- 
ened cooking utensil resting on a tiny clay stove, are 
the only other furnishings in sight. 

This boat is a sampan home for the aged. Here 
a little old woman sits on her heels, her long, lean 
arms hanging over her bony knees. The boat people 
give her a smile and a filial greeting as they go by. 
Often a kindly hand passes out a tasty bit of relish, 
a bunch of fresh spinach or mustard leaves, or a 
more nourishing portion from the giver's own allow- 
ance of food. 

What else could be done for an aged sampan 
woman? She has lived all her life in a boat, and 
could not now be happy in a house on shore. Prob- 



Canton from Day to Day 123 

ably her children have done the best possible thing 
they could do for her — to leave her sitting here quietly 
to dream over again the scenes of her active life in the 
old boat. 

On a pile of stones under the shade of a tree a 
group of girls have gathered, perhaps to chat about a 
new bracelet one of them wears. Or perhaps they 
are talking about the new suits they are making for 
the coming dragon-boat festival. One rests her head 
pn another's shoulder, and affectionately strokes her 
hand. Another pair entwine their arms in the school- 
girl fashion of our Western lands. I suppose none 
of them can read, but a look into their bright faces 
convinces one that it is not because they could not 
learn. 

Do you not think we ought to teach the gospel 
to these neighbors of ours, and not only to these, but 
to all the millions of boat people living wherever 
water flows in China? 

THE LANDWARD SIDE OF OUR STREET 

The landward side of our street along Pearl River 
is lined with business places. Most of these are also 
the homes of the men employed in them through 
the day. In the small shops the place of business 
is always the home. For instance, observe the basket 
factory at the rear of our house. Through the day 
its wide ground floor is occupied in basket weaving. 
Piles of splint, willow, and rattan are heaped about, 
and there are stacks of finished baskets in every corner. 
Nothing about the place is in any way homelike dur- 
ing work hours. But when the day's work is done, 
these materials are stowed away, chairs and stools are 



124 



A'Chu and Other- Stories 



brought out into the big room, and the table is set 
for the evening meal. When night comes, beds are 
set up for the men, who eat and sleep in the room 
where they have worked through the day, while the 
women retire to their rooms in the loft for the night. 




ARTIFICIAL CROTTOES IN A TEA GARDEN, CHANGSHA 



The houses we pass along this side of the street are 
in general character like the basket factory. 

In that section where the street is broadened by 
a turn in the river, mat sheds have been erected in 
the open space. Some of these mat-covered structures 
are simply open booths occupied as restaurants, but by 
far the greater number are closed in all around, leav- 
ing no openings except small squares for windows 



Canton from Day to Day 125 

above the height of a man's head and an entrance on 
one side. Through this entrance to the various huts 
an almost constant stream of men and boys is pass- 
ing in and out. The click, click of metal and the 
clack, clack of bone mingled with noisy and angry 
voices within, indicate that these are gambling booths. 
At this early hour, before the day's work has begun, 
these places are thronged. Outside, groups of men sit 
on mats here and there, eagerly engaged in this na- 
tional vice. 

Near by is another stand where dice are shaken 
to win rice-flour pancakes baked by the man at the 
griddle. At a stand iust bevond. a wheel of fortune 
is the drawing attraction. Conserves of fruit, nuts, gin- 
ger-root, and other sweetmeats are the prizes offered to 
lucky players. The latter place is especially attrac- 
tive to young boys. The boy who is lucky in winning 
pancakes and sweetmeats is almost certain to grow up 
an inveterate gambler, and gambling in China leads to 
poverty, degradation, and crime. 

A BRIGHT SPOT 

A ten minutes' walk brings us to the entrance of 
the garden, where long rows of flowering plants are 
drinking in the morning dew and sun. There are the 
showy dragon flowers in brilliant scarlet clusters; long 
ferns; cool palms; and the dainty bak yuk lam (a 
dwarf species of magnolia) perfuming all the air with 
the fragrance of its white, waxen buds tucked under 
the dark, glossy leaves. There, most beautiful of all, 
are the white lotus plants, folding and unfolding their 
ample leaves to the play of the passing breeze and 
nodding graceful heads of snowy flowers. It is a de- 



126 A'Chu and Other Stories 

lightful prospect in contrast with the scenes of the 
street through which we have just passed. 

SADDER SIGHTS 

As our steps quicken, a peculiar sound attracts our 
attention toward the other side of the street. There 
on a pile of wet logs are crouched nine wretched 
lepers, holding out brown earthen dishes in which to 
receive either cash or food to eke out the existence of 
their poor, decaying bodies, literally falling to pieces 
as they walk on their feet. Two are women, seven 
are men, and none of them are old. Several of them 
have lost parts of their feet, and have only crippled 
stubs on which to hobble about. Others have so little 
of the hands left that both are required to hold the 
dish. In other cases the hands are whole but red 
and swollen, while a part of the face — the nose, an 
ear, or a lip — is gone. Their soiled and scanty 
clothing is not sufficient to conceal their " wounds, and 
bruises, and putrefying sores." Having attracted our 
attention, they all hold out their brown dishes, beg- 
ging, " Cumsha! " 1 

A few steps away sits another victim of disease, lean- 
ing his thin body against a pile of old timbers taken 
from the embankment along the river's edge. His 
shrunken limbs stretched out upon the mat bed dis- 
played his feet, thick and swollen. At his side lies a 
bamboo hat and the beggar's brown dish. He says 
nothing, — only looks from glassy black eyes set in 
sunken sockets. 

Perhaps some friend has placed him here for the 
benefit of the morning sun. Remembering that our 



1 The word ** cumsha " is a corruption of Kam Sha, or Gold Sand. 
It means not a large gift, as represented by a gold coin, but a small 
gift, or grain of gold. 



Canton from Day to Day 



127 



good intentions had been looked upon with suspicion 
on some other occasions when we had offered aid un- 
asked, we feel compelled to pass on and leave him. 
Later in the day I passed that way again, for his 
eyes haunted me. He was still there. As there were 
but few persons then in the street, I went nearer and 
inquired, "You are ill?" 




© U. & U., N. Y. 

A SEDAN CHAIE BIDE IN THE HELLS NEAR HONGKONG 

The gentleman in the chair is an American consul. 



128 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" Very ill," he replied in a hollow voice, reaching 
for the brown dish. 

Hot soup is what he needs, I thought. With a 
promise to come back soon, I started for a near-by 
eating-house, thinking it wiser to purchase hot food 
for the sick man there, than to bring it from my own 
home, lest, in case he should die, suspicion point to 
the missionary foreign-woman's food. No rice or hot 
soup could be had at that hour. Bread seemed to be 
the only food available. I took him a loaf, but a 
shade of disappointment passed over the pale face as 
his trembling hands reached for the cold bread. Next 
day he was not there, but the piece of matting lying 
just as it was before, the battered hat, and the empty 
brown dish gave the clue. 

" He passed over last night," the man at the shop 
across the way replied to my inquiry. " I saw you 
give him bread ; I gave him some tea, but he was too 
ill to eat." With his foot he brushed aside the pa- 
per wrapping to show that but a morsel had been 
taken from the loaf. And so the man had died without 
knowing a Saviour, alone, in the street, and at night. 

Some weeks before this our United States consul 
at Canton had made an appeal to the kind people 
of America in behalf of the famine sufferers of Kiangsi 
Province. There had been two crop failures in suc- 
cession. The inhabitants were selling for almost noth- 
ing their cattle, houses, and gardens, yes, even their 
children and wives, that they might buy food. Chil- 
dren were sold for slaves at five cents a pound, while 
rice cost thirty cents. People were starving by the 
cityful. This was the meaning of the message the 
consul telegraphed to the American people. Back 



Canton from Day to Day 



129 



over the wires came the quick reply that gave more 
than $5,000 gold to buy them food. Boatloads of 
rice were sent up the river to those suffering people. 
Do not Christian people know there is a famine 
over all the land of China? Not one province only, 
but a great empire of four hundred million souls is 
suffering from this famine. This is not a famine 
for bread, but the starvation of a great nation, having 
no knowledge of God in the world. Not all the 
people of China are poor and sick and suffering, as 
some of these seen on this street in Canton. Back 
in the city are many beautiful homes, where gay peo- 
ple live in luxury, so far as money can buy. But 
poor and rich alike are sharing in this greater famine 
for the word of God. 




A CHRISTIAN PROCESSION IN. HEATHEN CHINA 

9. 




HIGHEST POINT IN CHINA S GREAT WALL 



130 



ONE HOUR IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 

THIS one hour was the last one before supper time 
in a missionary's home. The village was San-li-tien, 
one hundred miles and more north of Hankow. The 
name sounds more like directions on a country guide- 
board than the name of a village, for it really means 
" three li from the city." 

When the missionary's wife remarked that there was 
left one hour before supper, and asked how we would 
like to spend that time, a walk through the village 
was proposed. This was our first day in San-li-tien. 
A tour through its streets would give us a general 
impression of the place, and make it easier to fit in 
the details as we became acquainted with them during 
our stay. In this way we hoped to get in mind a fairly 
complete picture of a Chinese village and its people. 

" Very well," replied our lady, " we will take the 
children with us, and walk around the village inside 
the wall." 

" There are only about seventy families living in 
the village," she explained, as we passed out through 
the rear gate of the crude inclosure around the mission 
premises. 

THE MISSION HOME 

What was now the mission had once been the home 
of a well-to-do family; but when opium smoking came 
into that home, prosperity went out. Now there was 
left only one son, and he had become such a wreck 
that even a Chinese wife could not live with him. 

When the missionary was looking for a place to live, 
this son, the owner, rented the entire premises of five 

131 



132 



A'Cha and Other Stories 



or six houses for a sum barely sufficient to supply 
the little food he required and to pay for the drug he 
consumed. All the houses were then in a run-down 
condition, but now that the missionary had mended the 
mud-brick walls, patched the roofs, and whitewashed 
the rooms inside, there was a house for a boys' 
school and chapel, one for a girls' school, and one for 




REPAIRING HOUSE FOR A MISSION HOME 

a home for his 'Christian helpers, besides two small 
houses adjoining each other for the missionary's home. 



VIEW FROM THE VILLAGE WALL 

Climbing a stone stairway to the top of the village 
wall, we discovered another village, unwalled, lying 
to the east. This second village was separated from 
San-li-tien by a running brook. On the other side, 
to the west, was a wide, sandy river bed through which, 



One Hour in a Native Village 



133 



in this dry season, there ran only a narrow, silvery 
stream gathered from a distant line of hazy blue moun- 
tains. Beyond, across the sandy strip, lay the city of 
Sin-yang-chow, three li (one mile) away. 




CITY WALL AND GATE AT WAICHOW, SOUTH CHINA 

The surrounding plain, as far as could be seen, was 
dotted with brown patches outlined by hedges of 
nodding bamboo. These patches marked the sites of 
other villages. They occurred in surprising numbers, 
for we were at the border of the great central plain 



134 A'Chu and Other Stories 

of China, which stretches hundreds of miles north- 
easterly, to the capital city of Peking and beyond. 

Descending by a gradual path, we were again in the 
street leading around the village, inside its wall. Not 
a clean-kept, paved street — you must not imagine a 
street lined with green lawns dotted with flower beds, 
but a narrow space between the wall and the dwellings, 
irregular in width, uneven of surface, with the shabby 
look of a neglected back alley. 

On our left was the village wall. From the inside 
the ascent to the top of the wall is quite gradual. It 
consists of stones, old brick, broken pottery, and other 
hard substances mixed with earth and banked against 
a well-built wall of grayish-brown stone. Above this 
is a crown of gray brick rising some six feet higher. 
At regular intervals, square holes are left in the wall 
for the use of guns. 

From the outside this wall rises perpendicularly, with 
a solid stone front thirty or forty feet in height, and 
completely hides the village homes from the plain. 
The traveler must enter through one of the gates, and 
before nine o'clock at night, unless he has made previous 
arrangement with the watchman at the big gate to let 
him in; otherwise he will find himself shut out. 

THE VILLAGE HOMES 

On our right were the village homes, just dropped 
down anywhere the owner chose to build them. There 
were paths winding between the houses, and sometimes 
a patch of greens growing at the rear, but no neat 
dooryards at the front. The only line that could be 
called a street was the cart road through the village. 
Stubborn patches of snow crouched here and there in 



One Hour in a Native Village 



135 




spots out of reach of the sun and wind, and a keen, 
chilling breeze cut across our cheeks in spite of the 
bright sunshine. 

" An old woman used to live here alone. I wonder 
if she is still here," said the missionary woman, stopping 
before a poor hovel. 

The walls had been built of reed stalks plastered 
with mud, which now had begun to crumble, leaving 
rents in the ga- 
bles under the 
eaves. There 
was no pretense 
of a window, but 
the thatched roof, 
as if in pity for 
the dreary room 
below, had parted 
here and there, 
letting in golden beams of sunshine. The entrance 
was closed by two rickety doors shut together and 
fastened with a hay string tied to the latch and wound 
about a bamboo pole long enough to reach the wall at 
either side. Though closed and locked, the doors were 
too badly broken to hide the empty desolation within. 

No one was at home. Only the grim doorkeepers 
were left to guard against the entrance of unfriendly 
spirits. These doorkeepers were pictures painted in 
strong colors — red, blue, purple, black, and yellow — 
on sheets of tough paper and tacked to the door. They 
represented fierce-looking warriors with very big teeth 
and heavy clubs lifted threateningly. 

Several doors farther on we found the old woman 
standing before the home of her son. At sight of the 



MAT HOUSES 



136 A'Chu and Other Stories 

missionary woman, a broad smile broke over the 
wrinkled brown face. She came forward, begging us to 
turn in. " Come in, ladies, come in, sit awhile," she 
repeated rapidly, each call growing louder and higher 
as we made excuse. At this three other women came 
out. Each one in turn gruffly jerked out the snappy 
invitation, " Come in and sit," then turned about and 
laughed as if it were a joke. 

" Yes, do let us go in," I said. 

We entered through the spread doors, past the hideous 
doorkeepers set, as in all homes of the village, on each 
side of the entrance. 

THE VISIT 

The women on stumpy, bound feet politely hovered 
about, attentive to see us seated in the best chairs. 
They made an ado over the children, gave them tiny 
sticks of barley-sugar candy covered with nutty seeds, 
New Year cakes, and sweetmeats of preserved fruits. 

When all proper ceremony had been observed, the 
four women perched on a long, slim-legged bench, 
sitting in a row with hands drawn up under the sleeves 
of their potton padded garments. At the call of one of 
them an attendant brought an earthen pot shaped like 
a flower basket with a handle over the top. This 
contained burning charcoal. It was offered to the vis- 
itors first, but as the missionary assured them we were 
comfortably warm, they began to make use of this 
tiny stove themselves. Sometimes it was held to warm 
their hands, and sometimes it was set on the earthen 
floor to warm their bound feet. It was passed along the 
line when called for, and no one seemed to feel a bit 
modest about calling when she desired its use. 



One Hour in a Native Village 137 

Word had gone round that the foreign women were 
out calling, and soon the neighbors came flocking in till 
the room was full and all the " look-see " space before 
the door was occupied. The women brought their 
children with them, some on their backs, some in their 
arms, and others clinging to their garments. A few 
stopped only long enough to take a look, but others 
remained to follow after us. 

On occasions of such calls there is no telling to what 
their questions will lead nor where they will end if 
these women have their way. 

"Where did you get that coat? How much did it 
cost? Did you make it yourself?" one woman asked. 
At this others began to examine the garment and to 
make remarks. 

" It certainly is strong cloth," said one. 

" It must have been made in an outside country. 
We Chinese do not make such cloth," remarked another. 

" Look at the sewing! " sneered a particular matron. 
" It must have been stitched by one of those foreign 
machines." 

" No, no ; but those foreign machines do sew quickly 
and well," protested a more liberal spirit. 

Somewhere in the conversation they asked how old 
the new foreign woman was, and why she and her child 
did not have black hair like theirs — all with one 
question mark. They did not fail to contrast the style 
of the newcomer's garments with the dress of the mis- 
sionary, who wore native costume, nor to remark how 
much better the missionary looked. From the appear- 
ance of her hair, as contrasted with their own smoothly 
patted and pasted-down locks, they judged it had not 
been combed for two weeks. 



138 A'Chu and Other Stories 

"Look at those leather shoes! Is it not astonishing 
to see a woman wearing such heavy things!" came 
from a woman peeking through the crowd at the door. 

We were out to learn, and our missionary had prom- 
ised to interpret faithfully the remarks of the village 
folk. Before this first call was over, we began to 
realize that in the eyes of these women, foreigners are 
not greatly superior people. 

INSIDE THE HOME 

At another home fewer women came in, and I had an 
opportunity to observe things about the house. This 
was a better home than the one where we first stopped. 
Like most of the others, the house was built of large 
mud brick, pressed and dried in the sun. Like the 
others, it was sheltered by a thatched straw roof. But 
this house had a window in every room, — not big, 
bright glass windows looking out on the street, but 
curious little windows made of a tough waxed paper 
spread over wooden frames divided into small squares. 
These were set high in the walls. Inquisitive persons on 
the outside could not look in, nor could curious dwellers 
on the inside look out, for these windows were not 
transparent. 

Though the paper windows let in light, no sunbeams 
ever crept into this home, except those that came 
through the door. Fortunately, the doors are seldom 
closed except at night or on stormy days, for these people 
depend on sunshine for warmth. 

There were no floors of any kind, but the earth was 
beaten smooth, and had been lately swept and sprinkled 
with water to prevent dust. The interior was divided 
into three rooms by partitions constructed of open 



One Hour in a 'Native Village 



139 



basketwork of bamboo splints, and neatly papered with 
light-brown paper. The sitting-room had a ceiling over- 
head of the same device. Over the other rooms were 
only the smoked rafters and the dusty, brown, thatched 
grass roof. 

At the end toward the right was the kitchen, all its 
contents in plain sight from where I sat. There in one 
corner stood several very large brown water jars, and 
near them a pair of heavy wooden buckets, and the 
bamboo poles by which these were swung from the 
shoulder when the big water jars must be rilled. 

The cookstove was built of red brick set with firm 
mortar, and shaped in the form of a hollow cube. In- 
ks top was a round fire hole fitted with a broad, shallow 
iron pan. This pan was the principal family cooking 




A CHINESE PEDDLER 

Hear him calling: "Buy bottles, broken glass, old brass, 
iron, and stones in exchange for salted peanuts!" His 
mode of carrying his baskets is the same as the water 
carriers use — on a pole across the shoulders. 



140 A'Chu and Other Stories 

utensil. The fuel used in such stoves consists of 
twisted straw or dry grass, stalks of all kinds gathered 
from field, marsh, or hill, small branches which may be 
cut from growing trees, and on rare occasions, wood 
from the trunks of cut-down trees; and it is fed through 
an open hole at the back of the stove. There is no pipe 
to conduct the smoke to the open flue in the roof, so most 
of it drifts through the house to the outside by any open- 
ing it finds. 

In every home will be found the kitchen god set to 
watch over the preparation of foods. He hears all the 
cross words and disappointed complainings. Before the 
year is over he gets badly grimed with kitchen smoke. 
Lest he report the wrong things to which he has been 
a witness, his mouth is smeared and sealed with a 
very sticky, sweet sirup before he is burned and in 
this way passes into the spirit world at the end of the 
year. The god of this kitchen was still smiling, bright 
and clean, for the New Year was not yet a month old. 

In these homes the ordinary bed consists of a number 
of boards of suitable length nailed to crosswise strips 
of wood to hold them together. This rests at the head 
and foot. upon benches or tiers of bricks. A mat of 
skin or quilted cotton is spread on the boards, and 
with another piece for a covering and a cube of china- 
ware for a pillow the bed is complete. 

The sitting-room occupied the middle portion of the 
house where we were calling. Its walls and ceiling 
had been freshly papered. The place was tidy and 
much fresher and cleaner than might have been ex- 
pected of a room next to the kitchen with its daily 
smokes. But this was at the season of the Chinese 
New Year, and every loyal-hearted Chinaman will shave 



One Hour in a Native Village 



141 



his head, wash his clothes, and clean his house for this 
festival, whether he does so at other times or not. 

The sitting-room was furnished with a pair of guest 

chairs set at either side of a high table, a few stools, 

high and low, and two benches, like 

those shown in the picture below. 




ABOUND THE BICE BOWL 

At one side of the room was the ancestral altar, 
a piece of furniture present in all Chinese homes 
where the gospel is not believed. At the other side 
was the best piece of furniture the house contained, 

— a tall chiffonier very well made of beautiful hard 
wood. In its deep drawers and on its shelves one 
may expect to find all the family's choicest treasures 

— perhaps some jade bracelets and silver ornaments 
for the women. Neatly folded in one drawer may lie 
an embroidered skirt and a bright silk tunic, worn by 
all the brides in the family for four generations, and 



142 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



now waiting to serve once again on the bridal day 
of the unmarried daughter. There, too, will be found 
the bright new garments that have kept the village 
tailors and women of the house busy for days before 
the New Year time, together with gay caps for the 
children and those odd bonnets the women wear. 

One might not suspect how many really pretty 
and dainty things lie smoothly folded and packed away 




KICE FIELD AND COUNTRY VILLAGE 



behind those bronze locks. But on holidays and when 
the theater players come to town, the women and girls 
flock out from these mud houses as fresh and bright as 
the swallows that flit from their mud homes in the 
chimney. 

These people are not poor because they have very 
little money and live in mud houses, nor shiftless be- 



One Hour in a Native Village 143 

cause they take time to play with their babies and to 
chat with the neighbors. The rich fields outside the 
village walls are tilled like gardens, and yield two crops 
a year of all that is necessary for food. Their simple 
clothing is made principally of homespun cotton cloth. 
They are not bothered by changing fashions. Beyond 
simple food and plain clothes, they have need of little. 
Contentment adds length of days to the joy of living. 

As we passed on through the village, we were every- 
where met with a friendly invitation to come in and sit 
or drink tea. Their cordiality reminded us of the 
hospitality described in the Old Testament — of Abra- 
ham who went forth from the door of his tent to 
entreat the three strangers to enter his home and eat 
at his table. 

There is no hurry or bustle about this village of 
China. Men walk leisurely and take time to bow 
politely. Children are not in danger of being trampled 
upon nor the aged of being jostled in the way. 

SHARING THEIR QUARTERS 

Pigs wander about at pleasure or lie in sheltered 
spots, warming themselves in the sunshine. It is no 
uncommon sight to see the mother of a litter of young 
pigs lying before the house, while her family scamper 
in and out through the door as freely as the owner's 
children. At one place we saw growing pigs quietly 
sleeping on the floor in the room where a mother and 
her pretty daughters sat engaged on some dainty em- 
broidery. 

Chickens have their roosts and nests in cages in- 
side the door, and enjoy the liberty of the house 
with the family. Every family tries to raise enough 



144 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



chickens, ducks, or geese to supply the requirements 
of the year's feasts, and at least one pig. These are 



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STREET IN A CHINESE CITY 



treated as members of the family till the day comes 

when a particular one is to be served at the feast. 

Now and then we passed a meek-eyed donkey let 

out to rest awhile. Poor things! They were not 



One Hour in a Native Village 145 

too well fed, and looked quite tired out; but our mis- 
sionary advised that if we felt inclined to show sym- 
pathy for a donkey, we would better express it to his 
face, for so long as he is not dead, there is no safety 
at his heels. 

Although the animals shared life with its people, 
the village was not so dirty as one might expect. 
Perhaps this is partly because the thrifty farmers 
search the place, and carry off in baskets the bodies of 
dead animals and fowls, or anything else that can be 
used as fertilizer on their fields. 

A WAYSIDE SHRINE 

In an angle of the village wall we found an idol 
shrine. We were told by the keeper that it was 
built by a wealthy widow. No doubt this was done 
as an act of merit by which she hoped to gain a higher 
life in the spirit world than she might otherwise 
have attained. It was a little house of brick, with 
a green-glazed tile roof. Inside was a painted image 
of Buddha, the Indian prince, represented here in 
China with an Indian face. On each side of the 
idol were Chinese figures of females in waiting, and 
in front a table was set to receive offerings of tea, 
cakes, flowers, or whatever its worshipers might bring. 
Suspended from the ceiling above the table hung a 
lighted spiral coil that filled the place with the smoke 
of its incense. 

To such helpless places as this shrine do weary hearts 
come for rest and the sad for comfort, for no one 
has yet taught them the love of Jesus. There are a 
number of small shrines like this one within the vil- 
lage walls, but the temple is in the other village. 
10 



146 A'Chu and Other Stories 

RICE AND FLOUR MILLS 

At the crossing of the principal street near one of 
the gates was a mill for hulling rice. I was sur- 
prised to see the grain a dark creamy tint, but was 





(Q U. <B U., JN. *. 

PRIMITIVE GRIST MILL 

Country Homes in the Background 

told that the Chinese in these parts do not follow 
the practice of polishing their rice, as they consider 
unbleached rice more nutritious. 

On the other side of the street was a flour mill 
very much like the mills used in the days of Jesus, 



One Hour in a Native Village 



147 



and of which he spoke when he said, " Two women 
shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, 
and the other left." The grinding apparatus con- 
sists of two flat stones, one resting upon the other. 
These stones are turned by hand round and round. 
The grains fall between the stones through a square 
hole cut in the center of the upper one, and are 
ground between them. The wheat is passed through 




GRINDING FLOUR WITH WATER BUFFALO 

the mill four or five times before it becomes fine 
enough for flour. It is then sifted through large 
sieves shaken by a treadle. Bread baked from yes- 
terday's grist at this mill was served us for supper, 
and we thought it very delicious, but the missionaries 
are glad to get an occasional change to white bread. 
The wheat is threshed in the fashion of Bible times, 
by beating with the flail on the threshing floors of 
smoothed earth. Some of the grains are soiled in 



148 A'Chu and Other Stories 

threshing, and for this reason the wheat must be 
washed before grinding. We saw a large quantity of 
bright golden wheat lying spread out on broad bam- 
boo-splint trays to dry in the sun after having been 
thoroughly washed. There are larger mills in the 
village, where the stones are turned by donkeys or water 
buffalo hitched to long sweeps. 

BUNS WHILE YOU WAIT 

Outside the mill premises a man was baking soft 
buns in a little iron oven heated over a kettle of boil- 
ing water. He sold them as fast as baked, to those 
who passed by. The natives call them mo mos, and 
like them very much. 

Another variety of mo mos is baked in tiny dome- 
shaped earthen ovens. As we observed, the dough is 
prepared in the same way. The oven is heated over 
a pot of charcoal. When the proper temperature 
is obtained, the dough buns are sprinkled with a 
nutty vegetable seed, and with a ladle are pressed 
against the inside walls of the oven. When they 
have become brown, a slide is pushed in to cover 
the charcoal, and the baking goes on till the buns 
are thoroughly done, when they cleave from the oven, 
and falling on this slide, are drawn out. These have 
a crisp crust, and, flavored as they are with the brown 
seeds, make a palatable bread. The Mohammedan 
Chinese, who detest swine's flesh, use them freely, since 
they are certain to contain none of this fat. 

A WHEELBARROW TRAIN 

While watching the work at the mill, I was star- 
tled by a dreadful groaning, screeching sound in the 



One Hour in a Native Village 



149 



direction of the opposite gate. Surely, I thought, 
something dreadful has happened. No, it was only 
the noise of an incoming " train " on the main wheel- 
barrow line from Hankow, which follows the track of 
this paved street through the village. Some fifteen 
wheelbarrows, with broad frames piled high with bolts 
of cotton cloth and other articles of trade, were 




STRINGS OF CHINESE CASH PIECES 

The " cash " is the common current coin of China. It is 
about as large as our twenty-five-cent piece, with a square 
hole in the center for stringing. 

pushed past us and out the gate toward the near-by 
city. At the side of the train was a line of men 
and boys carrying strings of cash pieces over their 
shoulders and around their necks. It looked like a 
" heap o' money " to be carried about openly in that 
way, but we soon learned that twenty of those cash 
pieces were worth but one United States cent. The 



150 A'Ghu and Other Stories 

stone pavement has been cut into a deep furrow in 
the middle of the street by the passing of these 
loaded wheelbarrow trains. 

WAITING TO KNOW THE WAY 

One more call was made, at the home of a woman 
who often comes to the mission " to listen to the 
singing," she says. In this way she has heard some 
Christian teaching. It is not known that she is 
seeking to know the Saviour, but only that she comes 
almost constantly when the service is open to women. 
Seeing us pass her door, she would not be refused, 
but insisted that we come inside " to rest." Soon 
a company of women had gathered in the open court 
between the two houses that composed her home, and 
were listening to our missionary, who improves every 
opportunity to teach them of the one true God who 
would that all men should be saved. 

At our own gate we turned to say good-by to the 
friendly group that had followed us home to the mission. 

In that one hour's walk through a native village I 
realized a new meaning in these words of our Lord : 
" Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then 
cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your 
eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white al- 
ready to harvest." These Chinese people seemed so 
friendly, as if only waiting for a teacher to show 
them the way into the kingdom of God. 



Fortunes of the Chang Family 







it-*™ 

III 

r 




A CHINESE GENTLEMAN 



152 



THE SALT MERCHANT'S SON 

The title " Fortunes of the Chang Family " 
means the things, good and bad, that happened 
to a family by this particular surname. The ac- 
count will begin with the story of Chang Shiu 
Meng, who was the father of Chang Tak Meng, 
the father of A'Chu, who helped to make the baby 
fat. You will hear how the fortunes of a pros- 
perous and respectable family dwindled into pov- 
erty and contempt, as seen in the home of A'Chu. 
But the story does not end there. 

THE father of Chang Shiu Meng had inherited a 
share in profitable salt mines, and with this, an old 
sailing junk. The junk had brought salt from the mines 
to the market for generations of the Chang family. No 
matter what other repairs were neglected, the two large 
fishlike eyes, one at either side of the bow, had always 
been kept bright with a fresh coat of paint. This was 
considered necessary to successful voyaging. What sea- 
man would risk putting to sea on a dark night in a junk 
without eyes! "No have got eyes, how can see where 
to go? " is his explanation in answer to your question 
"Why?" 

This junk had not lost a cargo at sea since her now 
gray-haired captain had taken command. But it was not 
to the untiring watchfulness of her captain, but rather 
to the big bright eyes at her bow, that the seamen gave 
credit for this extraordinary record. In addition to the 
salt mine and junk, Chang inherited also a fine house 
on one of the big streets, the house where A'Chu was 
born. As eldest son of his family, he inherited not only 

153 



The Salt Merchant's Son 



155 



the fine house itself, but also the position as head of 
the house to the family his father had left. 

This meant that he would be expected to provide for 
that numerous family, together with all the friends and 
relatives who might choose to come, as they say, to " visit 
awhile." So long as feasts are frequent and good things 











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FREIGHT AND PASSENGER BOAT 



to eat are plentiful, these visits are likely to last. If 
presents of clothing are given by the host, such guests 
are quite certain to stay a lifetime. 

But if Merchant Chang had inherited heavy respon- 
sibilities as head of a large family, nature had well 
adapted him to bear the burden. He was alert, quick to 



156 A'Chu and Other Stories 

see opportunities. Keen foresight helped him to improve 
opportunities to profit. Best of all, he had a disposition 
to work. 

" Fortune favors our kinsman," observed the hangers-on 
at the big house. " He is sure to become rich." With 
this conclusion they settled themselves comfortably for a 
longer " visit." Little did they reckon on the long hours 
and busy life of the host whom they seldom saw. 

The time others frittered away in idle amusements, 
the money others spent in small luxuries, Chang in- 
vested in his growing business. More boats were put 
into service. More shops were built to handle cargoes 
that now came more and more often. 

The merchant's family increased with his prosperity. 
Of all the good fortune that came to Chang, nothing 
brought such joy and comfort as he found in his eldest 
son. He was a bright, merry-hearted child. His witty 
answers and childish pranks were the fond amusement 
of the men's quarters during the leisure hour following 
the evening meal. 

" He points to his father," they used to say, meaning, 
he looks like his father. 

The salt merchant felt flattered by this remark. But 
down deep in his heart he said to himself, " Ah, perhaps 
in looks he follows me, but in nature he is like his 
mother. He has the bright mind of the Leungs." 
Chang was proud to say that the " first lady " of his 
house was a Leung. They were an honorable people. 
Of late years many of the honors won at the yearly 
examinations had been conferred upon one or another 
member of the Leung family. They were therefore 
coming to be of great influence among the officials of 
their country. 



The Salt Merchant's Son 157 

After such a spell of daydreaming, the salt merchant 
would set about his business with greater diligence than 
before. He would gather riches, he promised himself. 
His son should be sent to school to become learned like 
his mother's people, the Leungs. Some day his name, 
the name of Chang, might become honored through the 
noble deeds of a wise son. 

There was great joy in the heart of the salt merchant 
the day when the old nurse-granny carried his child on 
her back through the gate and down the street toward 
the best part of the city. The boy's round head had 
been freshly shaved in a circle at the edge of the hair. 
The long hair at the crown was smoothly plaited and 
tied with a silk cord ending in two silken tassels. 
He looked very fine indeed in a new suit of bright- 
colored silk. 

"Where are you going with Chang boy so early?" 
inquired a friend by the way. 

" Taking the boy to school," the nurse replied grandly. 

"What, such a small one going to school! " 

" Those who wish their sons to become wise should 
see that they begin to read books early," she replied as 
one who knows. She had been nurse-granny to little 
Chang's mother in the home of the Leungs. She knew 
all about boys going to school. 

"To what school does he go? " inquired still another, 
out of idle curiosity. 

The old nurse was greatly pleased at this question. 
It gave her the chance to say what she was really glad 
to tell among her acquaintances. She was on her way to 
the very best school in the city. The little man on her 
back was going to school to sit side by side with sons 
of the Leungs and other families of the educated class, 



158 A'Chu and Other Stories 

He was to be taught in a school of reputation for its 
wise teachers. 

"What! Chang the salt merchant put forth so much 
money to give his boy read books ? " 

" No mistake. My master wishes his son to become a 
scholar." 

The woman passed on, stooping forward more lowly 
under her small burden. The boy's scarlet velvet top 
vest shone out more vividly in the morning light against 
the dark blue of her own coarse cotton garments. 

" Don't be afraid, little one. No fear, my precious," 
she said, reaching back and affectionately patting the 
child on her back. " By and by you shall become a great 
read-book man." 

Little Chang was the youngest and also the smallest 
boy in the school. He felt very shy on coming to school 
for the first time, even in spite of nurse-granny's often 
repeated, " Don't be so embarrassed. There is nothing 
to fear." 

Most of the other boys had been at the school for a 
time, and seemed to feel quite at home there. Because 
the " little one," as they at first called him, was modest 
and bashiul, the boys nicknamed him Shiu Meng (little 
name). It was the custom for boys to be given new 
names by their schoolmates. Often the name given by 
their parents was quite forgotten or remembered only 
as a household pet name. So it happened to the salt 
merchant's son. Hereafter we shall always speak of 
him by his school name, Chang Shiu Meng. 



THE BOY'S SCHOOL DAYS 

THE first two or three years of the boy's school 
life were dull indeed. From early morning till 
night, day after day, he sat on a wooden bench usually 
too high to let his feet touch the floor. Sometimes 
he hung his heels on a crossrung to rest for a few 
minutes. But this piece was far back under the 
middle of the wide seat, and the effort to reach it 
was a greater strain on his short legs than was the 
weight of his dangling feet. 

In beginning a new lesson the pupil took his place 
at the teacher's side. From the top of the perpen- 
dicular line reading down- 
ward, the teacher pointed to 

11 i n i • ^n^C a Ting = hear or 

each character and called its /^Y^Sf^* listen 

name. The boy repeated the 
word after him. After the 
line had been read over sev- 
eral times, the pupil wen 
back to his seat. Then h< 
continued going over the lint 
of characters, pointing to each 



S&* 



eral times, the pupil went tjlJf Gee = remember 
continued going over the line 



p 



letter and naming it aloud. "*' j& ^ „, . , 

% A. Shing = do 
These characters are not ^^&\ w 

like an alphabet of letters, 

each representing its own particular sounds, which, com- 
bined with other sounds, produce words. Instead, 
each character is the symbol of a word. Each word 
is represented by its own particular character-symbol, 
and it differs in some respect from every other char- 
acter. There are many thousand words in the Chinese 
written language. For example, between three and 

159 



160 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



four thousand distinct characters are used in a printed 
copy of the New Testament Scriptures. This makes 
learning to read a slow, difficult process. 

The beginner's book is made up of short sayings, 
in rhyme, of three characters each. For this reason 
it is called " The Three Character Rhyme Book." 















^ «a&dl L-H gP.* y ■ '5^JB| nA-i 




Hi i mum J - t a V nSr^B^Sj 


ml — 


v vSB 


■'■i 


^^m^B'sSfc « «^ * " nOfcT 1 ^^" "' 


vJI 


By^SJSy^ w^ 




:.' ;; " . ...; ;•.■ ..-'rf.v.^;-. • ■•- .'•-.. 





CHINESE SCHOOLBOYS 

From this the pupil passes to the " Four Character 
Rhyme Book," then to the " Five Character Rhyme 
Book," and so on. When he has passed the rhymes, 
he begins to read longer sentences, not in rhyme, and 
passages from sages. Each boy studies by himself, 
and not in a class. He is promoted when his work 
is completed, without waiting for others of his grade. 
Before Chang Shiu Meng was able to understand 
what he read, he was required to commit to memory 



The Boy's School Days 



161 



many pages, even whole books of writings. If a 
boy in his school had asked, " Master, what do these 
things mean? I do not understand what I read," 
no doubt the teacher would have replied, " You are 
only a boy; how do you expect to understand the 




© U. & U., N. Y. 

EXAMINATION HALL, CANTON 

This "hall" contains 12,000 "cells." The student en ; 
tered a cell and remained locked in until his essay was 
completed. Often the pupil fainted, and sometimes died 
before his essay was done. This method of conducting 
examinations is now obsolete. 

words of our ancient wise men? Waste no more 
time asking questions. Be diligent in reading. Put 
forth all your strength to learn every word. Keep 
these sayings in your mind constantly. Do not for- 
get them, and in time you will become wise as the 
sages themselves." Be sure his wise eyes, looking 
11 



162 A'Chu and Other Stories 

out through big tortoise-shell-rimmed spectacles, would 
have warned that boy he must ask no more such 
foolish questions. 

From the writings of Confucius, boys were taught 
rules of conduct to govern a good life, such as these: 

Duties of children to parents. 

Duties to older brothers. 

Duties to younger brothers. 

Duties to neighbors. 

Duties of a subject to his king. 
And all the other duties of a good man in this 
world. Nothing was ever said about duty to our 
Creator, for Confucius taught nothing of God nor 
about religion as we know it. 

The boy's school days were pretty much all work 
and no play. There were no rest hours, no play 
hours, and no vacations in a Chinese school — none 
except the yearly holiday festival of the Chinese New 
Year. A short recess for breakfast was taken in the 
forenoon, and dinner was eaten after school was out 
in the evening. 

Outside the school building were all the attrac- 
tions of a living world — cool shade, green fields, 
flowers,' and fruits. There were birds with their 
nests and young, playful pets, and other children 
at their games. But none of these things should 
tempt away from his books the boy bent on learning. 
He who aimed to become wise should waste no time 
at play. 

At least, this is the way those Chinese masters 
seemed to see things through their big spectacles. 
What wonder if Shiu Meng grew spindle-legged and 
thin-chested, and that his face lost its sun-kissed tinge 



The Boy's School Days 



163 



of bronze. What if he sometimes envied his father's er- 
rand boy, and longed for the time when that serious- 
faced man would say, " Enough of reading books. You 
are needed at the salt shop." 

Inside the schoolroom was always the hum of 
voices of boys droning at their lessons. There, 
too, were always long lines of characters to be memo- 
rized and pages to be written in the copy book. 
When it is remembered that no history of other 
nations was taught, no arithmetic, nature, or geog- 
raphy, the day's program appears very dull. There 
were no interesting newspaper or magazine clippings 
of things happening in the world at that time — 
none at all. Instead, the pupils were taught things 
that took place centuries ago, and learned by heart 
sayings of wise men dead two thousand years or more. 




SCHOOLBOOM IN A TEMPLE 




© U. & U., N. Y. 

SAWING LUMBER IN A CHINESE MILL, NINliPO 
164 



A GENUINE CHINESE BOY 

THE family name " Chang " is perhaps as old as 
the Chinese nation itself. Chang Shiu Meng's 
family (in China the family name, or surname, is 
placed first) claimed to have descended from a long 
line of purest Chinese ancestors. Not a man among 
them would have admitted that a drop of Manchu 
or Tartar blood flowed in his veins, not even if 
that blue drop had made him a relative of the em- 
peror. To him the Manchu was an oppressor, the 
representative of a foreign Tartar race, which in 
1662 A. D., having overcome the Chinese nation, 
took it upon themselves to rule a conquered but 
superior people. 

If a Chang would have denied relationship with 
the Manchus, he would have scorned with equal con- 
tempt to be called a Hakka. Hakkas, he would have 
declared, were mere strangers in the land, as the 
name itself means. Migrating from the north, they 
had scattered themselves throughout the empire. After 
learning from their neighbors what the Chinese think 
to be true civilization, the Hakkas finally settled 
down to become industrious citizens. For all that, 
they are not real Chinese, for they are not de- 
scended by blood from the ancient and noble found- 
ers of the Chinese nation. 

Chang Shiu Meng, even more than the Changs 
in general, was proud of his nation. True, China, 
misruled by the Manchu conquerors, was not, as he 
thought, what she once had been, but he was proud 
of his nation's past, — proud of her sages and poets, 
proud of the long lines of kingly families that had 

165 



166 



A'Ghu and Other Stories 



" held court " from earliest times, while the present 
great nations of Europe were as yet but half-savage, 
roving tribes. 

Once the boy's teacher had shown him a map of 
China. From this map he got several ideas strange 
to us, but no doubt they Were just what the map 
was intended to represent. The earth appeared to 
be a flat surface, spread out like a great plain. 
China lay at the very center of the earth, and was 
shown to occupy the greater part of its dry land 

area. His country, 
" The Flowery Land," 
as seen from this map, 
was the greatest coun- 
try on the whole flat 
earth. His heart 
swelled with pride that 
he, Chang Shiu Meng, 
son of the salt mer- 
chant, was also a son 
of the greatest, most 
highly civilized nation 
of the world. Com- 
pared with China, other 
nations were but small, 
barbarous tribes on its 
outlying borders. 

To this Chinese boy, 
the Great Wall at the 
north, the great ocean 
on the east and south, 
with the towering, al- 
chinese schoolboy most impassable Hima- 




A Genuine Chinese Boy 



167 



layas and the trackless desert of Gobi on the west, 
seemed to encircle in sacred inclosure what is worth 
while of the whole earth. Within this favored circle 
have lived the great and wise kings and the mighty 
warriors who founded and developed this vast empire. 

Here in this favored land lived and died Con- 
fucius, China's greatest, wisest philosopher. Here, also, 
lived Mencius, his most illustrious pupil. Before 
these two names, of the wisest of her wise men, 
a great nation of 400,000,000 people bow in rever- 
ence. These, the boy thought, were the truly noble 
and wise, whose teachings had made China the great 
nation she had been for twenty-five centuries, from 
their day to his own time. 

One of the first stories Shiu Meng heard at school 
was of this Confucius, who lived B. c. 500. When a 
boy, Confucius set his heart on learning. Like King 
Solomon of the Bible, he prized wisdom above every- 
thing else. Like Solomon, and like every boy who has 
been willing to work for it, he acquired great wis- 
dom and learning. 




WAITING TO BE TAUGHT 



168 A'Chu and Other Stories 

Confucius was pointed to by the teacher as the 
model of schoolboys. To study what Confucius wrote 
and to be able to repeat his sayings accurately was 
the teacher's idea of learning. To understand and 
live according to the precepts of Confucius was, 
likewise, the highest wisdom. Unfortunately, very 
few masters of Shiu Meng's days had seen a Bible 
or heard of Jesus the Christ. They firmly believed 
Confucius to be the wisest and best teacher who had 
ever lived upon the earth. 

Under such influences and teaching as have been 
described, Chang Shiu Meng grew up. He was as 
full of ambition and hope as a young man could be 
whose highest ideal of life was to copy, in outward 
conduct at least, the life of men dead long ago. 
He resolved to perform every duty taught by the 
wise men, and to follow strictly the social customs of 
his times, which his nation regarded as sacred. This 
course, he thought, would bring him a quiet and 
peaceful life, and lead to a peaceful end at death. 
His schoolmasters had taught him that a peaceful life 
and a peaceful end are the greatest blessings to be 
sought. 

Chang Shiu Meng had been born under a lucky 
sign, so the fortune teller said. Already he was on 
the way to riches, for on leaving school he had become 
his father's partner in the big salt works. A long and 
peaceful life, a peaceful end, and riches, — these three 
blessings seemed just within his reach. The wooden 
beads tapped each other merrily as his nimble fingers 
sent them flying over the polished wires of the abacus, 
or reckoning machine. Each day his reckoning showed 
that the gains of his business were increasing. The 



A Genuine Chinese Boy 



169 



voice of the young accountant purred with content- 
ment as he swiftly and accurately said aloud the 
sums represented by his operations on this old-time 
counting machine. 

One more blessing he greatly desired ; for did not 
the wise men teach that the most undutiful conduct 
of a son toward his parents is to leave no sons to 
worship the spirits of the forefathers? Shiu Meng 
was too proud to allow himself to be thought an un- 
dutiful son. Like every true Chinese, he desired, 
as a part of " riches," that he might become the father 
of many sons. But why bother his head about sons 
yet awhile? Good fortune was on his side, and surely 
would give him this blessing also, in proper time. 

In this manner did Shiu Meng comfort himself 
in his belief, and went the more cheerfully about his 
business at the salt works. 




THE BETROTHAL 

WHEN Shiu Meng was about twenty years old, 
his parents decided it was time for him to 
marry. Some of the family relatives had been much 
worried over this matter. The time was " slow," they 
declared; he should at least have been engaged several 
years ago. 

A trusted female servant of the family was chosen to 
act as go-between, and was sent to search for a wife 
for her mistress' son. The young man himself was con- 
sulted not in the least. Everything was left to the go- 
between. She would select the girl and plan for the 
whole affair, even up to the wedding day. 

To be sure, young Chang was interested in the 
matter. What man whose highest ambition was to 
lead a peaceful life and die a peaceful death would not 
be interested in the choice of the woman with whom 
he would be expected to live? But polite custom for- 
bade that a young man should have any part in choos- 
ing his wife, and Shiu Meng meant to follow the 
customs. 

The go-between, having satisfied herself that she had 
found the proper person, carefully learned the girl's 
name and the date of her birth, even to the very 
hour in which she was born. These facts she caused 
to be written out with great care, and she herself 
took the paper to a fortune teller. From this paper 
the fortune teller compared the girl's sign in the 
stars with that of the young man, and forecast that 
the pair could enjoy a happy married life together. 

" They have already eaten the tea presents," his 
old nurse-granny told Shiu Meng privately one day. 
170 



The Betrothal 171 

From this he knew that the customary presents of 
tea, cakes, nuts, etc., and money had been sent 
to the chosen girl's family and had been accepted. 
This meant that the couple were engaged. It re- 
mained only for the bride's family to fix upon the 
day and for the groom's family to give the wedding 
feast for their son. This feast would complete the 
marriage ceremony. So far the young folks had not 
seen each other, and would not be expected to meet 
till their wedding day. 

However, in spite of custom, Chang was greatly 
concerned to know for himself what kind of person his 
bride might be. Perhaps, if he had known where she 
lived, he might have done as I have known other young 
men in his situation to do, — he might have disguised 
himself as a silk seller or a jewelry peddler, and gone 
to the house to steal a look. But what could it matter, 
after all? Whatever he might think about her would 
not change affairs now. He was already engaged, and 
in China a betrothal is as sacred as a marriage con- 
tract. Neither is to be broken. 

" She is very beautiful, and more sweet-tempered 
than beautiful," old granny flattered him, when he 
spoke to her about "what was in his thoughts. 

She might have admitted that all she knew about 
it was what the go-between had told her over their 
rice bowls, but she did not. Still Shiu Meng was 
not at ease. More than once he had seen his fa- 
ther hurriedly take himself into the street on pre- 
tense of urgent business when there was a difficulty to 
be settled between his own mother, " the big lady," 
or first wife of his father, and one of the smaller 
wives. At times there had been jealousies among the 



172 A' Gnu and Other Stories 

women of his father's household, and such spells of 
" sipping vinegar," as women's family quarrels are 
called, as to turn the whole family sour for weeks 
together. 

Indeed, Shiu Meng himself had barely escaped 
being the victim of the jealousy of a favorite con- 
cubine, or " small wife," of his father. She desired 
her own son to become the salt merchant's heir, but 
this could not be while the son of " the big lady " 
lived. 

One day this fascinating concubine of modest eyes 
and fair face coaxed the boy into her apartments. 
She flattered him with soft words, and gave him 
plenty of sweetmeats and dainties to eat. That night 
the rightful heir was taken sick. Old granny was 
at her wit's end what to do. 

"How fortunate!" she exclaimed, relating the ex- 
perience to his mother next morning, " he threw it 
all up." 

After this affair the charmer was sent away to 
live in a small house by herself. She was never 
allowed to come back to the big family home any 
more, not even to share in its gayety on feast days. 

The recollection of incidents like these caused the 
young man some doubts. He was not perfectly sure 
about being able to live the " peaceful life " with 
any pretty girl the trusted go-between might select 
at first sight, or at best on short acquaintance, at the 
recommendation of her friends, who were anxious to 
see the girl well married. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 

DAYS before the time set for the wedding feast, 
there were many goers and comers at the Chang 
home, for the son of the salt merchant was to be 
given a feast becoming a rich man. Caterers from 
the various select establishments brought roasts of 
every description. There were whole roast pigs done 
a golden brown, every part evenly cooked to the very 
center, but never a bit scorched. Besides these were 
quantities of roast fowl, chicken, duck, and goose. 

From the fruit markets had been brought hampers 
of bananas, oranges, and pomeloes, together with 
baskets of fragrant guavas, the brilliant scarlet litchi 
set off by its own glossy dark-green leaves, pineap- 
ples, mangoes, and a variety of the summer fruits 
common to the semitropical climate of southern China. 
The bakers' shops fairly outdid themselves in the 
many sorts of cakes and sweetmeats produced for 
this feast. Some of them were highly colored, — 
yellow, red, and blue. Not a few contained spiced 
minced meats, while others were puffy with tooth- 
some sweets. Of fruit conserves and confections there 
was no end. Wines, also, with pipes and tobacco, were 
provided in abundance. 

When the day for the opening of the week-long 
feast arrived, the heavy street gates of the court had 
closed behind the last of the jostling, noisy carriers 
with his baskets, pole, and ropes. Bright - colored 
lanterns hung above the gateway and at its sides, 
and the portal of the many-roofed, rambling old house 
was festooned with scarlet bunting. Everything was 
ready in quiet waiting. 

173 




© U. & U., N. Y. 



174 



A "lily-footed" woman 



The Wedding Feast 175 

On the opening day guests came, arriving mostly 
in closed sedan chairs. The chair bearers rapped out- 
side the gate and called, " Some one has come." 
At this the gatekeepers unbarred and opened wide the 
two-leaved doors. Lackeys called out, " Madam So- 
and-so, with her attendants, has come; " or, " The Honor- 
able So-and-so has arrived." The great house was 
filled with relatives and friends, old and young, come 
to make merry at the feast the salt merchant had 
prepared for the marriage of his son. 

Some days before, a procession from the home of 
the bride had brought her clothes and gifts from 
her parents. There were strong tanned-hide boxes 
bound with brass bindings and securely locked. One 
might readily guess that these contained the bride's 
trousseau. Suit upon suit of substantial clothing, 
meant to last a lifetime, lay smoothly folded within 
these small trunks, for fashions do not change as 
often in China as they do in Paris. There were 
bright, dainty clothes for holiday wear, headgears for 
many occasions, and a dozen pairs of " water lilies," 
as the tiny hand-embroidered shoes for poor bound 
feet were called. (We must remember that this wed- 
ding took place years ago, before the girls of China 
began much to unbind their feet and to go to school.) 
There were bowls of various sizes and different 
colors, and decorations for bath and toilet use. Boxes 
and carved trays contained quantities of gifts and 
sweetmeats sent by the bride's worldly wise mother 
to be distributed among the children and servants 
of the great Chang family, as the new daughter-in- 
law should try to win her way into favor in her 
husband's home. 



The Wedding Feast \11 

It would not be profitable to attempt to describe 
all the trunks, baskets, and bundles that form a part 
of such a procession, and it would be quite impossible 
to name the countless articles these might contain. 
Enough to say, all the belongings of the bride were 
sent beforehand to the home of her mother-in-law, 
who saw them safely deposited in the bridal chamber. 

Then came the crowning day when the bride her- 
self was expected at the feast. The bridegroom sent 
his closest and truest friend with a letter from him- 
self calling her to come. A Chinese bride keeps such 
a letter very carefully, for it is proof of her mar- 
riage as the first and only true wife of her husband's 
home. Amid the tears and wailing of her family 
and young friends, the girl was carried out of her 
home, placed in the big wedding chair, and borne away. 

At the Chang house there was heard the patter 
of many bare feet and a confusion of sounds outside 
the gate. Then came a loud knock, followed by a 
louder call, " Open the gate." The courtyard within 
was thrown into a bustle of excitement. The gates 
swung open, and the bridal train was ushered in with 
the piping of horns, the shrill tones of musettes, and 
the clashing of gongs. The bridal chair was a massive 
wooden structure, carved with curious designs, painted 
red, elaborately gilded, and decorated with the bright 
blue of the kingfisher bird's feathers. 

With a great deal of puffing and loud talk the 
chair bearers rested their burden on the stone pav- 
ing before the porch. The hired waiting maids dis- 
mounted, and came and stood beside its door. In all 
that procession there was not one relative or friend 
of the little bride in the big red bridal chair. 
12 



178 A'Chu and Other Stories 

All eyes turned toward the door, waiting the com- 
ing of the bridegroom. Presently the door opened, 
and Chang Shiu Meng came out to receive his bride. 
Had she come to fill his life with contentment and 
joy, or would her coming disquiet his home with self- 
ishness and ill temper? Whatever may have been 
his hopes or fears, the young man went through his 
part as coolly as if he were receiving a cargo of 
salt at the shops. He tapped at the door of the bridal 
chair with the tip of his fan. The maids opened it, 
and assisted the bride to alight. A loose mantle of 
scarlet brocade was thrown over her wedding gar- 
ments, and a piece of thin red silk fell from the bridal 
coronet, completely hiding her face. 

" Poor child ! " thought Chang, as he saw that she 
trembled with fright. " She is quite as helpless as 
I am, and just as unhappy." For she still sobbed 
with grief at being torn from her home to become 
the wife of a strange man, and what might be worse, 
the daughter-in-law of a strange mother-in-law. 

Good form would not permit him to take the 
girl by the hand and lead her into his home. He 
plucked just a pinch of her sleeve between his thumb 
and finger, and with his face turned aside, led her 
into the house. Inside the threshold he stepped upon 
a stool placed for him to stand on while his bride 
knelt before him and touched the floor with her fore- 
head. This is a part of the marriage ceremony by which 
the bride promises to respect and obey the man before 
whom she kneels. 

However, most brides do not take this promise too 
seriously, for later, when they sit down to eat to- 
gether for the first time, the couple play the game. 



The Wedding Feast 



179 



" Who shall be boss ? " The wife tries to get a 
piece of her husband's long coat under her when she 
sits down. His part is to prevent this, and to manage 
if possible to sit on a piece of her clothing. The 
one who succeeds in sitting on the other's garment will 
rule the new family. 

After worshiping together at the family altar of 




BRIDE AND GEOOM 



the ancestors, Shiu Meng and his wife were led to 
their bridal chamber. It is the custom at this stage 
of the feast for every particle of covering, either veil or 
ornaments, to be removed from the bride's face. For 
the first time the couple are allowed to look into each 
other's faces, to be seen just as they are; for the 
bride uses no rouge or paint on her wedding day. 



180 A'Chu and Other Stories 

Here the guests gathered around them and made 
whatever remarks they chose about the bride's looks, 
manners, clothing, or what not. They extended to 
her their good wishes, the chief one being, " May 
you have many children." They congratulated the 
bridegroom, wishing him " a hundred sons and a thou- 
sand grandsons." An orange tree had been set up 
in their chamber and hung with strings of cash pieces. 
Strings of this same copper coin, with the square hole 
in the center, were hung above their couch. These 
strings of cash were meant to express to the couple 
the wishes of their guests for great riches. 

The wish of many children for the bride is a 
very sincere one; for the older women know that 
if the little bride is so unfortunate as not to give 
the husband's family a group of children, and espe- 
cially if she is not the mother of at least one son, the 
family will compel her husband to take another wife, and 
perhaps even a number of them. Then trouble begins. 

Through all the trying and perplexing ceremonies 
of the wedding feast, the Chang bride bore herself 
modestly. That her features were not handsome her 
best friends must admit; but after the tears were 
dried and her fear had passed away, her black eyes 
shone keen and bright. Her face revealed a con- 
tented heart and an unselfish disposition. Shiu Meng 
was very well satisfied with her, though out of po- 
liteness and modesty he spoke of her always as " my 
ugly [plain featured], miserable old wife." 

On her part the bride was glad when it was all 
over. There had been no happy looking forward to 
her wedding day. To her it was like taking a leap 
into the deep dark. There was no telling what might 



The Wedding Feast 



181 



come. But now that she had seen the man and 
knew for herself that he was neither hunchbacked, 
crippled, blind, nor dumb, that he was not a leper 
nor a dried-up old opium smoker, she, too, was satis- 
fied. In spite of all her fears, he was well, young, 
and good-looking. She counted herself very happy 
indeed, and made up her mind to be a good and true 
wife to Shiu Meng, and a faithful daughter-in-law to 
his parents, who would still be the head of the family. 
It is not the fashion in China, nor is it considered 
proper, for a husband and wife to talk about loving 
each other. " Not all the king's horses and all the 
king's men " could have drawn such an expression from 
the lips of either Chang Shiu Meng or his equally 
well-bred wife. However, the truth is, that before 
the wedding feast closed they had begun together that 
happy life the fortune teller had foretold. 




CARRYING THE BRIDE TO HER NEW HOME 



THE UPS AND DOWNS OF FORTUNE 

CHANG SHIU MENG was really a happy man. 
His girl-wife, who was only sixteen, proved to 
be just as sweet tempered if not so handsome as the 
old go-between had promised. 

Of course the couple did not set up housekeeping 
in a nice new home by themselves. That would not 
have been according to the customs of those days. 
But Shiu Meng's mother showed herself a woman of 
sense, in this matter at least. She had seen to it 
that a suite of rooms in a pleasant part of the family 
home was cleaned up and freshened with new paint 
in a manner very unusual except at Chinese New 
Year's time. A suitable portion of the best black- 
wood furniture the big house contained, was selected 
and placed in these rooms. 

When the wedding feast was over, the first daugh- 
ter-in-law of the Chang house was brought there, to- 
gether with the waiting maid and bridal gifts sent 
from her father's house, and was duly installed in her 
new home. While the young people ate and drank 
and in a general way shared life with the big family 
of the* house, still these pleasant rooms were more like 
what we think of as a home than a Chinese son's 
wife usually enjoys. With such a mother-in-law the 
little bride felt she ought to be very happy indeed. 

A year and more had passed. Shiu Meng and his 
wife, Sam Gu (meaning " third one," so called be- 
cause she was the third child in her family), had now 
become quite well acquainted. The young man liked 
to come to the bright little sitting-room where Sam Gu 
passed most of her time. To be sure, they never talked 
182 



Ups and Downs of Fortune 183 

much together. I am almost as certain as can be he 
never told her why he liked to come. Probably he 
himself never knew. The place was more pleasant 
than the big parlor where the men of the house gath- 
ered to smoke and chaff or talk business affairs, or 
perhaps sat to listen to the old men tell tales of the 
Chang ancestors and Chinese legends of the country's 
past. He was happy to be there, sipping the tea Sam 
Gu brought to him, and nibbling the sweetmeats she 
set on the small teakwood table at his side. And it 
may be said his wife liked to have him come, though 
she usually sat with her face turned away, busied with 
embroidery work. 

One day there was a stir and commotion about the 
place. All the interest of the big house seemed to 
center in that quarter where the daughter-in-law lived. 
All the women of the house, ladies and maids, gath- 
ered near, waiting expected news from within. 

" It's a girl," snarled the coarse woman who poked 
her head out for a half minute, and with only these 
words shut the door in disgust. 

Outside the door everybody's countenance fell. With 
a sniff the servants went on their way. The " visitors " 
and other women of the house whispered together 
gravely as they disappeared in various directions. The 
First Lady, Shiu Meng's mother, hobbled back to her 
room with her hand resting on the shoulder of a slave 
to help her balance herself on her two tiny feet. 
The girl threw back the silken draperies of a carved 
bed, and the First Lady of the Chang house threw 
herself upon it for a prolonged sulk. Had she not for 
months feasted the family gods with everything reason- 
able gods could desire? Had not the ancestors of her 



184 A'Chu and Other Stories 

husband's clan been duly honored, both by hired priests 
and by members of the family? Why, then, had a girl 
been born instead of the son for whom she had ear- 
nestly prayed? 

In the pleasant rooms of the daughter-in-law a poor 
little mother turned her face to the wall and wept in 
bitter disappointment. 

By and by the baby girl, who was the cause of all 
this serious talk and disappointment, began to nestle 
and squirm in the big bundle of old clothes where 
she lay. She began to cry, at first coaxingly, then 
loud and determined. She opened her mouth as wide 
as a hungry young robin's, and the round little head, 
covered with thick black hair, rolled from side to side, 
searching for something to fill the gap. 

" She's hungry," growled the old woman. Picking 
up the bundle, old clothes, baby, and all, she tossed 
it into the bed beside the sobbing mother. 

Baby kept on squirming, searching, and crying. The 
young mother's heart was touched. She drew the bun- 
dle to her side, and pressed the wee black head close to 
her breast. Baby was satisfied, and slept. A great 
warm tide of love sprang up and overflowed the young 
mother^ heart. " Only a girl; but so am I. We will 
share our troubles together," she promised the wee one, 
and named her Oi Line, meaning " love and pity." 

As might be expected, Shiu Meng felt quite aggrieved 
because his wife had given him a daughter instead of a 
son, as every one had prayed for. It was long before 
he came to her pleasant sitting-room to drink a cup of 
tea from her hands. Even then he had not forgiven 
Oi Line for being a girl, and he did not so much as 
notice her. 



tips and Downs of Fortune 185 

Sam Gu began to feel sure she had lost her position 
in the family's favor, and thought no doubt Shiu Meng 
would soon be bringing home a second wife. Already 
her mother-in-law had been saying this was the only 
thing to do. In her heart she did not blame them. 
She herself thoroughly believed in Chinese customs and 
tradition, and agreed with her mother-in-law that by 
all means Shiu Meng must have a son. Only sons 
may succeed their fathers in ancestor worship. If this 
kind of worship were neglected, they might expect the 
family fortune to fall into ill luck. Shiu Meng, how- 
ever, seemed in no hurry for a second wife, and Sam 
Gu thought it must be her duty to select one for him. 

Time went on. Again there was a stir in the big 
house. But this time the tip-toe interest did not center 
about the quarter where the pleasant sitting-room had 
been. The mother of Shiu Meng had decided that 
probably those rooms were not in a lucky part of the 
house, since a girl had been born there, whereas a boy 
had been desired. So she insisted that Sam Gu and 
her child be moved to other rooms where she thought 
the fung-shui might be more favorable. The good god 
supposed to grant mothers their wishes for children was 
set in a shrine for the daughter-in-law to worship. Even 
a different woman was selected to take care of the little 
mother. 

Of course all this fuss had nothing at all to do with 
what really did happen afterward — not in the least 
way. But this time the old woman opened the door 
wide, and with a broad smile said loudly, " Blessings on 
this house! A son is born." Now the women smiled, 
and each one hurried off to perform some act of re- 
spect to the family name. The mother-in-law, of course, 



186 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



went first to the family altar to thank the gods with 
feasts and incense. 

Her next step was to prepare suitable clothing for 
this new son of the house of Chang, the salt merchant. 
One of the largest shops in the city was asked to send a 
salesman to the house with a package of silks. The 
sewing women were gathered in the First Lady's parlor 




SEWING FOE THE FIRST SON 



when he arrived, and soon various pairs of hands were 
delving into the bundle, selecting the brightest colors 
and gayest patterns for the baby's clothes. Spry fingers 
moved joyously, and in a few days a stack of little suits, 
consisting of skimp pants and roomy jackets, together 
with a number of caps, was ready for his wear. Sam 
Gu looked on with pleasure, though she was never con- 
sulted as to what was to be made for her child nor how 



Ups and Downs of Fortune 187 

it should be made. That honor was properly delegated 
to the grandmother. 

While the women of the house were thus seriously 
engaged with the baby's affairs, a letter was received 
by messenger that set the men's quarters into an equal 
stir of excitement. The letter was contained in a big 
red envelope addressed to Shiu Meng. In stately lan- 
guage it set forth the fact that there was a vacant place 
among attending officials of a viceroy's yamen, and 
with the father's consent this official would call his 
nephew, Chang Shiu Meng, to fill that position. It 
was signed by Leung, the viceroy, eldest brother of Shiu 
Meng's mother. 

Though Chang, the salt merchant, was getting old, he 
readily consented to his son's going, for in this invita- 
tion he thought he saw his brightest daydreams coming 
true. His son was now on the road to making a great 
name for himself. Of course he would not be allowed 
to leave home until after the baby's naming-day feast 
was over. 

While preparations for Shiu Meng's departure to the 
yamen were going on in the men's quarters, prepara- 
tions for the baby's naming feast were almost com- 
pleted in the women's quarters. Baby was almost a 
month old. On the thirtieth day after his birth a feast 
would be held, and a fitting name be given this son 
of the Changs. To be sure, the young mother had 
found a name which she thought just fitted her boy. 
A'Kam Tsai was the name she chose. " Nugget-of- 
gold child " is its meaning. 

The invitations to the feast had been sent to friends 
and relatives of the Chang family, and presents of value 
or beauty, or for his amusement were constantly arriv- 



188 A'Chu and Other Stories 

ing at the house — charms and amulets of gold, brace- 
lets and anklets of gold, silver, or jade, and toys in an 
exceeding number were sent by guests who would come, 
themselves, when the day arrived. 

As a last act the grandmother sewed onto the tiny 
caps golden charms supposed to have the power to pro- 
tect the wearer against sickness and ill luck. Amulets 
of equal power were sewed into little sacks of silk to 
be hung around his neck. Now the next step was to 
choose a name. " Call him after his father," some one 
suggested. 

" Not so," insisted the First Lady, " call him not Shiu 
Meng [little name], but Tak Meng [the powerful 
name]." The saying pleased them all, for all the guests 
wished that Baby Chang might in time outstrip his 
father, though that young man's prospects now appeared 
so bright. 

The feast was held, and Baby Chang became known 
to all his friends as Chang Tak Meng. To the little 
mother he was always A'Kam Tsai, and even when he 
grew up, was still her A'Kam. 

Chang Shiu Meng got on very well in his new posi- 
tion at the yamen, though he was sadly missed at the salt 
works. The uncle, Leung, was proud of his nephew, 
and trusted him with many particular and difficult duties 
of the office. Before little Tak Meng had passed his 
third birthday, it was known that his father, Shiu Meng, 
was to be appointed chief mandarin of a large district. 
He would begin his duties in this new office after the 
New Year. 

While Shiu Meng was at his old family home for the 
New Year festivities, he was taken ill. All the reme- 
dies thought of by the women of the house failed to 



Ups and Downs of Fortune 



189 



quiet his suffering. The fever in his body rose higher 
and higher, and he suffered severe pain in the joints, 
which became swollen and inflamed. A native doctor 
was called. After a long talk he advised a remedy which 
was quite sure to heal the sick man. It was expensive, 




WEALTHY VILLAGE HOME READY FOE THE NEW YEAR 

of course, but he was sure the Changs would not hesi- 
tate at any cost that would procure healing for their son. 
A servant was dispatched to an apothecary shop at 
the farther side of the city. In a short time he re- 
turned, bearing two large vessels, one in a basket at 
either end of the pole over his shoulder. One vessel 
contained the remedy supposed to heal the pain in the 
hands, arms, and trunk of the body. This remedy was 
a large light-colored snake with dark spots along its back 
and sides. The doctor very seriously prescribed the way 



190 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



in which the reptile was to be stewed, and how both 
the flesh and the broth were to be eaten. In the other 
vessel was a black snake, which, if prepared and taken 
according to directions, was warranted by this doctor to 
cure the disease in the legs. 




A CHINESE DOCTOR 



With all speed fires were kindled under two broad 
cooking pans, and the remedies were made ready. But 
though the doctor's directions were strictly followed, the 
sick man grew worse and not better. The pain became 
too severe to bear, and finally, when it was proposed 
that he should take " no-pain medicine," Shiu Meng 
consented to try it. It stopped the pain like magic. In 
a short time he felt like a well man. He talked and 
laughed in a jolly mood. 



Ups and Downs of Fortune 



191 



Next morning the pain came back again, and Shiu 
Meng called lor more of the " no-pain medicine." To 
cut short the sad story of this promising young man's 
downfall, let it be said at once that Shiu Meng became 





n , 


,.:. 


: ■.:.: ' '' ' 


- •"■' 9 


'*>" " *r 



(fc; u. & u., jn. y. 



IN AN OPIUM DEN 



an opium user. At first he smoked to quiet the pain. 
Then he smoked because he had smoked, and nothing 
but more of the same smoke could satisfy the terrible 
thirst and craving which overcame his best resolutions 
never to touch the drug again. 



192 A'Chu and Other Stories 

The opium destroyed his will. It overcame his am- 
bition. Though his body gradually recovered, his power 
of mind was gone. Then he smoked because there was 
nothing else he cared much to do. Till the late hours 
of the night he lay on a couch rolling into soft balls 
particles of the opium drug heated in the flame of a 
small lamp. These balls were dropped into the cup of 
the long pipe. A few slow whiffs of the sickening, oily 
smoke, and the ball was consumed. Then another was 
prepared. When morning came, he was too sleepy and 
dull to attend to business. 

Opium smokers like company, and in time numbers of 
worthless fellows joined Shiu Meng in his nightly dissi- 
pation. Time wore on, and Shiu Meng's fortune was 
fast wearing away. His father had died in disappoint- 
ment, for Shiu Meng never won the great name the 
salt merchant had planned for his son. He never be- 
came a mandarin, as his uncle had expected to see him. 
He became nothing but a thin-chested, dull-eyed, weak- 
minded opium smoker. 

Relatives of the family, seeing his weakness, seized 
control of the salt works and the sailing junks. There 
was nothing left him but the big house, and what money 
these relatives chose to allow him for keeping his family. 
The best of his belongings were pawned to get more 
opium. 

The boy Tak Meng grew up under these very bad 
influences, with a great desire for more money than the 
family income could allow for him to spend. When he 
came to be head of the family, he intended to recover 
the family wealth. He took up the idea of making a 
public opium den of the big house. He borrowed and 
spent a great deal of money in getting the place ready. 



JJps and Downs of Fortune 



193 



For a time there was again plenty of money in the 
Chang house. It showed a gay face to the world once 
more, and its friends came back. Then came the law 
to close all the opium-smoking houses in China. The 
men from whom Tak Meng had borrowed money took 
the big house to pay his debts. Tak Meng was forced 
to seek another home, and to earn a living for himself 
and his family by work or by cheat as he chose. 

He began to gamble. At first he won a few sums. 
That gave him the notion that he must be very clever, 
so he ventured everything he could sell or pawn in the 
exciting game, hoping to become rich. After many 
changes, the family finally moved to a small house back 
of the old mission chapel. Tak Meng's wife took in 
any work she could get to do in order to earn money 
to buy food for herself and the children, and for his 
feeble mother, who lived with them. 




FIELDS OF POPPIES FROM WHICH OPIUM IS GATHERED 

In some places one tenth of the land is given to poppy 
growing. 

13 




© TJ. & U., N. Y. 

WHERE WEALTHY NATIVES PASS THE TIME 



194 



A SCENE IN CHANG TAK MENG'S HOME 

GIVE me some money!" Chang called excitedly, 
rushing from the street into the small gray 
room where his wife sat braiding tea mats to earn 
rice for the family. 

" Do not blame me," the woman apologized. " Great 
is the pity, but I have no money. What I gave you, 
honorable senior, was the whole of it." 

" You certainly have money," returned the man an- 
grily. "Where is the rent money? You have, hidden 
it in your pillow." 

With one bound he had crossed the room and was 
climbing the stair to the attic. There was no money to 
be found in her pillow, nor under the matting of the 
bed, nor in her mirror cabinet. There was no money in 
the crack under the eaves, nor in the attic anywhere 
Chang's desperate search led him. 

"Give me the rent money!" demanded Chang, de- 
scending again to the living-room. " You are only 
deceiving me. Give me the house-rent money, or 
with this pillow I strike you dead," he threatened, 
raising the hollow porcelain cube for the blow. 

Then as though on second better thought, he spoke 
more calmly, " Come now, give me the rent money in 
your belt. Don't be a fool. Today is my lucky day. 
I shall win today, for there is fire in my heart. Then 
you need not work. With money for this one more 
game, I shall win the riches long promised me by the 
idols. Quickly, give it to me." 

" See for yourself, there is not a cash," and she 
tossed him a small coin purse taken from beneath her 
garment. It was the little red pouch of scarlet satin, 

195 



196 A'Chu and Other Stories 

hand-wrought with thread of gold, that hung from 
her girdle when she came to him a bride. Years had 
passed since the little purse had bulged with gold coins 
as it did that day. Indeed, it had been months since 
even two pieces of silver had rubbed sides between its 
folds. 

He snatched it open and went through each small 
compartment once and a second time, as though he 
suspected the little limp sack also were deceiving him. 

The purse dropped from his hands, and disappoint- 
ment covered his features. With bewildered, staring 
eyes he searched the bare walls and floor of his 
home. There was nothing of value left. The last 
piece had gone to the pawnshop. He caught the 
outline of a brown lacquered sleeve behind the door. 
The bent shadow of a little old woman fell across 
the red tile floor and up the gray brick wall. 

Chang sprang toward the foot of the shadow. " Oh. 
you have the money! Give it to me," he demanded. 

" It is not good to speak so loudly," Chang's mother 
spoke quietly. "Why is your heart so disturbed?" 
she inquired gently. 

" I said, Give me the money," he repeated more 
loudly. 

" From whence should I have money? " pleaded the 
widow, holding out her delicate hands. " These can- 
not toil." 

" Without mistake you carry the house-rent money, 
and therefore you were hiding behind the door. 
Give it me." 

" Listen to reason. Should not a son hear his 
mother's words?" she pleaded. "Suppose the land- 
lord should put us into the street. Where could Igu 



A Scene in Chang Tak Meng's Home 197 

sit to weave mats to buy our rice? Where would 
your old mother lie down to sleep at night?" 

" You both alike are silly women. You both hinder 
my good fortune by your foolish talking. Give it in- 
stantly," he shouted hotly, angered by the parley. 

" Strike me dead, even so I will not give the rent 
money trusted to my care," flared the aged woman 
defiantly. 

Beside himself with rage, the gambler sprang at his 
mother. He seized her by the arm with a grip that 
sent his clawlike nails through the thin garments, cut- 
ting the flesh. 

" You shall give it. I will have it," and the mad- 
dened man hissed words that stung the little mother's 
heart like the fang of a serpent. 

With a quick, desperate effort the old woman 
snatched a blue rag from an inside pocket and flung it 
across the room toward her daughter-in-law. But Igu 
did not move from the low stool nor stop her braiding 
at the mats. When a mother's words fail, it would be 
useless for a wife to interfere. She had learned that it 
is as hopeless to oppose the gambler's passion as to 
reason with a drunken man. 

The blue rag dropped to the floor with a thud that 
told plainly it held just what the man was looking 
for. He seized it, and was off toward the gambling 
house. 

The little old woman sank down on a wooden 
chair and clasped both hands over her breast, pressing 
tightly as if to close a wound. In that moment of 
intense excitement her only son had hissed a bitter 
oath in her ear. He had blasphemed an aged parent. 
He had cursed her in the name of her mother, that 



198 A'Chu and Other Stories 

revered title compared with which no name besides his 
own had been so dear to her heart. 

She rose with flames in her eyes and started toward 
the door, then hesitated. No telling what might 
happen if the authorities were to get notice of his 
conduct. In no place is the exact penalty of the di- 
vine law, "He that curseth father or mother, let 
him die the death," more strictly executed than in 
China. 

" No, I will make no complaint," she said decidedly. 
"It is the game. The game has made him crazy. 
Gambling has rotted his brain," she argued against 
her own convictions of justice, and went back to the 
wooden chair. 

" A'Kam, A'Kam," she moaned, and reached a shaky 
hand toward her shoulder, as if feeling for her child's 
soft cheek resting there. 

She sat very still for some minutes. Then her 
hand grasped the chair arms and her lips became 
very firm. She arose, and going quietly about gath- 
ered up a few indispensable articles, — a small tin 
box containing a wooden comb and two small hair 
brushes^ a hank of thread with a brass thimble, and a 
suit of cotton garments she slipped from a bamboo stick 
on which they had been hung to dry. These were 
wrapped tightly together and tied in a square of cloth. 

" Undutiful son ! I cannot eat rice with an unduti- 
ful son. Better were a burned crust from the rice 
kettle of the poor home," she said to herself, but 
conveniently within her daughter-in-law's hearing. 

" Sit comfortably," she bade Igu, as she passed out 
the door with the bundle in one hand and a walk- 
ing stick in the other. 



A Scene in Chang Tak Meng's Home 199 

" Walk well, walk slowly," returned the daughter- 
in-law, without raising her eyes for very shame of 
what had happened. 

The two children returned from the market elated 
with plans for a surprise they were to give grand- 
mother at mealtime. Down at the bottom of the 
basket was a tiny strip of fresh fish intended for her 
alone. And the rice they had found in the market 
today looked whiter and its kernels were more flinty 
than they had been able to afford for some time. 
They passed through the room to the cookhouse with- 
out noticing the pallor of their mother's face. She had 
often looked pale since they could remember. 

"Where is grandmother?" queried Fung Mui. 

" Grandmother has gone what place? " chimed A'Chu. 

" Gone to the poorhouse," their mother answered 
with a tilt of her nose toward the door and a sweep 
of its tip in the direction of the side street. She 
herself sat like stone, only her hands at the mats moved 
like parts of a mechanical toy. 

" We'll bring her back," said A'Chu. 

" Bring her back," echoed his sister. They tore 
through the door and down the street, following the 
direction of their mother's nose. 

The grandmother's crippled, bound feet, aided only 
by a wooden walking stick, had not made rapid head- 
way, for the paving stones were smooth and slippery 
from the rain. Pattering feet from behind were over- 
taking her slow pace, so she stepped aside to wait for 
them to pass. 

" Grandmother, come back," called the children. 
" We have come to lead you home again," panted a 
voice at either elbow. 



200 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" I am not going back," she replied with firmness. 

Each child took her gently by the arm, and turned 
her about in the street. With Fung Mui pulling at 
the bundle in front and A'Chu's sturdy arms push- 
ing at her back, the old woman was moved slowly 
homeward. All along the way she protested, " You 
needn't, you needn't, for I am not going home." 

" But we have a piece of sweet fresh fish for your 
supper, and lots of good white rice to cook. Come, let's- 
get back quickly," coaxed A'Chu. 

" I will work very fast at the mats, and we will 
have good things tomorrow, also," promised Fung Mui. 

"What is happening in the street?" questioned 
voices from the courts of walled-in dwellings along 
the way. Small boys or slave girls stationed at the 
gates to gather the local news for the shut-in women, 
returned the news, " There has been a row at Chang 
Tak Meng's home. His venerable mother wishes 
to go to the poorhouse, but the children will not let 
her go." 

Men looking on through the open fronts of their 
shops, exchanged opinions. " What a pity on her, she is 
so old ! " said one. " Such a son should be made a 
warning to others by being beaten forty strokes with a 
bamboo rod," remarked another. 

By the time the three reached home and the old 
grandmother had been given a cup of tea and coaxed 
to rest, all the neighborhood had heard what had 
taken place in the gambler's home. 

An uncommonly large number of persons passed 
that afternoon, walking slowly and looking in at the 
door. Igu did not raise her eyes. She was too 
ashamed to look a neighbor in the face. The chil- 



A Scene in Chang Tak Mcng's Home 201 

dren were not present when the storm of angry words 
swept their home, but even if they had been, the joy 
of having grandmother back again would have covered 
it all. They paused only long enough to answer their 
inquisitive neighbors, "No mistake! Grandmother is 
back again," and went on quickly getting the sur- 
prise meal ready. 

Grandmother seemed quite satisfied to lie resting 
after the exciting time and long walk. After all, 
she could not feel that her life was all sorrow. For 
in what her prodigal son had come short of duty, 
his children were making up to her with swift feet 
and loving hearts. 

Chang Tak Meng, still unlucky as ever and now 
also shamefaced, crept quietly into the house while 
the street watchman was beating the small hours 
of the night. After a few hours of restless sleep he 
was up at sunrise to try again his luck at the 
gambling tables. 



THE GAME WON AT LAST 

MONTHS wore away while things went on 
about as usual in the Chang family. Chang 
himself was always pursuing good fortune, while evil 
fortune was forever overtaking him. What he won 
today he lost tomorrow. Whatever his fortune, he 




TELLING FOKTI'NFR BY THE PALM 



always wore good clothes. No one knew exactly 
where he got them, though it was suspected they were 
borrowed. That he was less than half well fed 
was plainly to be seen in the gauntness of his thin 
body. 

Mrs. Chang and Fung Mui were always busy 
with the mats. Once I said to the girl, " We have a 
fine group of young girls like you in our girls' 
202 



The Game Won at Last 203 

school. Would you like to go to school and learn 
to read ? " 

" Yes, indeed," she replied. " I have heard them 
sing, too." 

" You can come to our school without pay. School 
begins next week. Will you come? " 

" I have no clothes for school," she said. 

" But, Fung Mui, if you wish to go to school, 
don't stop to think about clothes. Many of the girls 




(URLS IX A MISSION SCHOOL 



come in very plain clothes. I will help you get 
garments fit for school." 

" Mother is poor. I must help earn money," she 
said sweetly. " A'Chu must read books. Sometime he 
will go to school," she added unselfishly. 

Some time later the baby brother came, and every- 
thing else was forgotten in the children's effort to 



204 A'Chu and Other Stories 

get on without eating in order that there might be 
food for those who must have it. 

A very confidential friendship had sprung up be- 
tween the gambler's son and my own boy, who was 
about two years the older. A'Chu rarely went to 
market but that he stopped at the gate to talk over 
his business with " the foreign boy," as he called our 
young American. 

Not only was there lack of food in the Chang 
family, but there was not a scrap of cloth in the 
house to make clothes for the little stranger — only 
an old blue cotton garment to wrap it in. Winter 
was coming. It was amusing to hear the two boys 
plan what might be made of stockings with worn-out 
feet, skirt bottoms of outing flannel gowns, and the re- 
maining parts of worn-out knitted garments. 

" Tell your mother not to let a scrap of new cloth 
be thrown away," A'Chu instructed his American part- 
ner in the baby-clothes business. " Mother will piece 
them together and make a handsome baby-carrier for 
me to carry the baby in." 

A'Chu's enthusiasm for his baby brother's comfort 
was contagious. We all caught it. By the time the 
boy had the baby in his bright patchwork carrier and 
came around to show him at our gate, he was a 
brother for any boy to be proud of. The little face 
was plump and contented, and the fat, dimpled hands 
curled up cutely under the long sleeves. 

A soft knitted garment snugged close to baby's 
body, and his squirming legs were clothed in pants 
of the same material to the very ankles. The foreign 
partner had taken a very decided stand against the 
Chinese custom of clothing a baby's head and chest and 



The Game Won at Last 205 

trunk and leaving the legs practically bare. And so 
A'Chu's baby, in addition to warm pants, wore white 
stockings and moccasins of woolen cloth. Well fed 
and warmly clothed, baby was supremely happy, and 
grew accordingly. 

" There is not another such fine baby in the neigh- 
borhood," said all the old women. 

"What a pity its father is a gambler!" remarked 
another. 

Chang Tak Meng heard the compliment, and took 
notice. The baby also began to take notice, and 
Chang spent more time at home. 

"What has happened? Did you see that? The 
man behind carrying that sedan chair is Chang Tak 
Meng," reported one to another. 

" Chang Tak Meng at work! Fear you saw wrong," 
returned her companion. 

" Father brought home fish and greens for supper. 
We all ate full," A'Chu reported at the garden 
gate that night. 

"Where is your baby?" inquired his American part- 
ner, observing that the bundle was gone from his 
friend's back. 

" Oh, father is playing with the baby," explained 
A'Chu. " Come and see how cute he is, and how 
fat he has grown." 

The boys ran together around the corner to the 
street back of the old mission chapel. 

No one can tell how it happened or when, but 
Chang's lucky day had come, the game had been 
won at last. The old gambler had regained his senses. 
The craze had left him, and Chang sat by the door 
of his house with the baby on his knee. 



206 A'Chu and Other Stories 

If one were to ask me how it happened, I should 
say, " The children did it." If A'Chu had not helped 
to make the baby fat, he would soon have died and 
needed no clothes. If the clothes had not been warm 
and comfy, baby could not have grown so attractive. 
No gambler would care to sit at home and hear a 
half-starved, blue-with-cold baby cry. But what Chi- 
nese father could have resisted such a fine baby boy as 
the proud brother put on exhibition in its best clothes 
whenever Tak Meng dropped into the house? 

Bits of soap left from wash day were choicely gath- 
ered up by the American partner and slipped over 
to A'Chu, with full directions how to use them. 
The mother and Fung Mui were busy weaving mats. 
But besides going to market and carrying baby on his 
back most of the day, A'Chu found time to wash the 
little one's clothes. Indeed, his own clothes began to 
look as if they, too, sometimes passed through soapsuds. 

Night after night, when the chapel door swung 
open, the father came in with the baby in his arms 
and A'Chu by his side. He sat among the listeners, 
and heard of One who, though rich, for his sake be- 
came poor, that he, Chang Tak Meng, might become 
rich. Let us hope Chang never lets slip the good for- 
tune found in the old mission chapel. 



Stories of Chinese Life 



THE HUNCHBACK 

BAD enough to be hunchbacked, most boys would 
say, without being named Hunchback. Quite 
bad enough, we agree, to carry a big hump where the 
shoulder blades should be, to grow arms far too long 
for the body, and to hitch along on spindling legs 
matched in length to the arms. To be reminded of 
this deformity every time his name was spoken did not 
better matters for the boy. 

Maybe the fish man did not think how such a name 
would feel to a boy. As he sat by his block under a 
shade of flour sacks stretched over bamboo poles, the 
fish seller did not look very kind-hearted. No bantering 
customer ever inclined him to cut short his weights. 
While he carefully balanced his wooden steelyards in 
one hand, he marked with the thumb and forefinger 
of the other the last notch each cut could be made to 
weigh. A lean hand caught the copper change as it 
fell to the block, and with a quick sweep turned it into 
his box. 

Perhaps the fish man's business did not help him to 
be thoughtful of others. He always spoke even the 
cripple's name in a tone like the ring of the cash 
pieces as they fell into the iron box. 

Maybe the boy's mother did not think how it would 
feel to be called Hunchback. She was a pale-faced 
woman, whose feet had been tightly bound when she 
was a small child. They were poor stubs now, not 
longer at the soles than the natural feet of a child 
two or three years old. 

Maybe they did think, both of them, and con- 
cluded, in real Chinese fashion, that since their son's 
14 209 



210 A'Chu and Other Stories 

deformity could not be helped, they must make the 
best of it. The sooner the boy got used to it the 
better. At any rate, they commonly called him after 
the hump on his back, A'Tau — in our language, just 
plain Hunchback. Most certainly you will prefer to 
hear him called by the Chinese name, for. although it 
means the same to him, it does not sound so cruelly 
blunt to us. 

At first acquaintance A'Tau did not appear to be 
very hunchbacked. He was able to get about in a 
lively fashion, and had as bright a mind as the aver- 
age boy of his age. When the games became too rol- 
licking, so that he could not join the other boys in 
sport, he was often chosen umpire. He must have 
been a just judge, for the boys usually were satisfied 
with his decisions. His father was not too poor to 
afford an education for his son, and was willing to 
send him to school. 

Any one in China willing to study enough to pass 
the government examinations might rise to a position 
of honor. It is quite possible the fish dealer's son 
might have become a real judge in his nation but 
for one unfortunate turn the boy took, at first without 
his pafents' knowledge. 

Those days when A'Tau was at school were stirring 
times in China. ' A young emperor had come to the 
throne as heir of the Empress Dowager, or queen 
mother. He started in with a swift hand to change 
the slow old customs and make of China a new, mod- 
ern kingdom. When the old men shook their heads, 
they were promptly given pensions and allowed to go 
home. Young men who approved the young emperor's 
reforms were called to be his counselors. 




© U. & U., N. Y. 

" LILT-FOOTED " GIRL BEING CARRIED BY HER SERVANT 

211 



212 A'Chu and Other Stories 

In a short time the wiser heads of China decided 
things were moving too rapidly. They insisted that 
the empress must look after her adopted son's ways. 
The son-emperor was dismissed to a quiet life, while 
his queen mother again became ruling empress of China. 

Perhaps in a time like this it was but natural for a 
boy of A'Tau's age to think he, too, could do things 
without the advice of older or wiser people. Unfor- 
tunately for the cripple, no strong-minded mother was 
watching to correct his folly before it was too late. 

One reform the young emperor had planned was to 
drive opium smoking from his kingdom. This plan 
the empress followed strictly. Her edicts against the 
manufacture and use of opium were posted in public 
places in every city of her realm. Opium smoking 
was fast destroying the nation, and all Christian people 
rejoiced that China was at last to be freed from its 
curse. They hoped young men and boys might now 
grow up to take their places in the world without being 
poisoned in body, mind, and soul by the dreadful drug. 

However, the queen's scarlet posters had scarcely 
become weather-stained by sun and rain before the great 
city in which A'Tau lived was stirred by the arrival 
of a nfiw device of destruction. Almost in a day, on the 
gates and walls of the city and the sides of buildings in 
every street were pasted gay pictures. Many of these 
pictures represented beautiful women dressed in bright 
colors and adorned with glittering jewels. 

This was something new to the Chinese. Their 
refined women are modest and retiring. They seldom 
go about the streets, and then only when accompanied 
by other women. Groups of men and boys gathered 
before the gay posters, wondering how it was that these 



The Hunchback 213 

fine foreign ladies had caused their pictures to be 
displayed in this land of China. 

In reply to their questions, the director in charge of 
posting the advertisements tossed a shower of tiny 
packages into the crowd. 

"Ah, it's smoke!" announced one who had quickly 
opened a neatly sealed package and sniffed its contents. 
"Foreign smoke — such a good flavor!" and he pro- 
ceeded to try one. A lively scramble followed as an- 
other shower of cigarette samples came raining down 
to meet the outstretched hands. 

The foreign man noticed the crippled boy on the 
outer edge of the group. He tossed a bright, silvery 
package into the boy's outstretched hands. A'Tau's 
eyes smiled the " Thank you ' his lips spoke. Another 
followed, lighting at his feet. 

That was the beginning of the unlucky turn which 
determined that Hunchback could never be a judge or 
any other person of honor in his nation. The poison 
of the cigarette smoke fastened itself upon his weak 
body. A craving was created that nothing but more of 
the same poison could satisfy. He did not care for 
books now, and when the teacher beat him for lazing 
at his study, he stayed away from school. Every cash 
piece he could coax from his parents or find where it 
was not lost, he spent for smoke. 

A'Tau's face grew paler, his arms stretched longer 
and leaner. His legs became more and more spider- 
like. While the other boys enjoyed their games, he sat 
discontentedly looking on. His eyes became dull. He 
began to cough badly. His chest became hollow, and 
the hump on his back grew higher. 

" Your son is not well. You had better take him 



214 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



to see the foreign doctor," a missionary said to the fish 
seller one day. 

" It is of no use, entirely of no use. He only eats 
too much smoke," he replied, with a gesture that plainly 
meant, "Away with your foreigners! Do not talk to 
me. What faith have I in your missionary doctors, or 
in your Christian religion, either? Your foreign cig- 
arettes are killing my boy. How shall I know the 
foreigner's doctor or his religion will prove to be better 
than his smoke? " 

And so the evil practice went on, as it has gone on 
in other countries, and the end is not yet. 




THE SAMPAN GIRL'S LULLABY 

A GROUP of sampan children left their house-boats 
toward evening of a sultry afternoon, and came 
ashore to stretch their legs. Just at the point where 
our house stands there is a considerable open space be- 
tween the row of houses on one side and the bund wall 
along the shore of Pearl River. A sharp turn in the 
wall a short distance upstream swings the strong current 
out into the deep channel, leaving below a quiet spot 
where the house-boats gather for anchorage. This 
angle in the wall is known as Tung Shek Kok (liter- 
ally, East Stone Corner), and gives its name to this 
section of the city. The open space on the bund, 
besides answering for many other purposes, is in par- 
ticular the special recreation grounds for the sampan 
children. 

That afternoon the tropical sun had shone with mid- 
summer brightness, and the smooth surface of the water 
sent back its reflection in dazzling whiteness. The boat 
people pulled out the extension roofs of their crafts, 
and remained under cover, drinking tea and fanning 
themselves. Babies cried, mothers fretted, and the older 
women scolded. To be sure, there is not much 
housework to be done, but living in a sampan a day 
like this is not altogether pleasant. Toward evening 
the cool monsoon from the south sprang up. The chil- 
dren scrambled out of the close quarters in the boats, and 
capered over the sandy bund, frisking about in great 
relief. 

Some one said, " Shuttlecock," and presently the whole 
company was divided into convenient groups for the 
game. The winged cocks began to fly from toe and 

215 



216 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



heel and ball as the players flitted about, striking with 
left foot or with right, forward, backward, upward, 
downward, at any angle or in any way, only to keep 
the gay toy cocks flying. Heat and weariness were for- 
gotten, and the sampan children — boys and girls to- 
gether — were as merry as only Chinese children at 
shuttlecock can be. 

A woman came out from one of the boats, carrying a 
baby on one arm. With the other hand she gathered up 
the long red ties of a baby-carrier and languidly trailed 
them along as she came toward the children. She 
called peevishly, and a girl from one group went toward 
her. Baby was set into the soft square of the carrier, 




CARGO BOATS 

Women washing clothes at the river's edge. 



The Sampan Girl s Lullaby 



217 




LTTTT.E CHTXESE fITRT, CARRYTXC RARY 

On the Bund, Hongkong. 

and the long ties were passed forward, two over the 
girl's shoulders and two under the arms around her 
waist, then the four were twisted together in a knot at 
the front, wound about her waist, and securely fastened. 
In this way the baby Avas bound snugly and tightly 
to his sister's back. 

But baby did not like it. Who would? The sister 
had been skipping about vigorously, playing shuttlecock. 
It had been warm enough in the house-boat with the sun 
beating down on its low roof, but this was like getting 
out of the frying pan into the fire. Baby cried. 

" Don't cry," commanded the mother, and was off 
toward the street market place. 



218 A'Chu and Other Stories 

Nevertheless, baby did cry. The sister soothed and 
patted the restless bundle on her back, coaxing, " Don't 
cry! Don't cry!" Finally, she decided that if she 
waited for baby brother's consent, she would miss all the 
sport, so she r^an back to her group and plunged into 
the game, jumping, striking with her feet right and 
left at the gayly colored cock, driving it hither and 
thither and springing up to toss it again exactly as if 
baby were not there. 

The baby's head bobbed to this side and then to that, 
up and down. Why it did not snap off was a puzzle. 
Was it because his neck was too much stretched with 
trying to keep up with his body? For some reason he 
seemed to have stopped crying, and for a few moments 
the game went on merrily. Then he began again, and 
this time more lustily. Above the shout and laughter of 
the losers and winners his rebellious cries rose in protest. 
Without a word or signal that I could see, the game 
ceased. The players picked up their cocks, and ran off 
to a spot farther down the bund. 

The disappointed sister was left alone with her noisy 
burden. She took the hint, and made no attempt to 
follow nor even to look after her companions. Instead, 
she patiently hunched up higher the bundle that had 
settled down on her back. Without turning her eyes 
either toward the market street or toward the gay 
shuttlecocks, she stood still in the spot where she had 
been left. Teetering first on one foot, then on the other, 
and swaying her body to and fro as a cradle rocks, she 
patted the burden on her back soothingly, first with 
one hand, then with the other, coaxed and cajoled. ' 
Louder and louder she sang till the shrill voice rose 
clear above the baby's cries: 



The Sampan Girl's Lullaby 



219 




Mother is coming by and by, 

By o'by, by o'by; 
Fast as the wings of wind can fly, 

Hush, baby boy, don't cry. 

Our king loves the baby, so he does 
Hush, little boy, don't cry; 

The governor, too, the baby loves, 
So there, little boy, don't cry. 



Nothing shall harm the baby dear, 

Dear little boy, don't cry; 
Bad spirits are gone, and the gods 
draw near ; 
Good little boys won't cry." 

— Translated by the Author. 









Chinese Infant Rhymes 

TRANSLATED BY THE AUTHOR 



PAT-A-CAKE 

Clap, little one; little one, clap. 

Go buy a small fish. 

If the fish has no flavor, 

Go buy a sweet olive. 

Is the big olive sweet? 

Then take another. 

When the man gives no more, 

Ask for your cash back again; 

Go another place, 

Buy a sweet bite. 

Sweet how long? Sweet three years. 

□ 

TEACHING BABY TO WALK 

Toddling, toddling, you an orange meet, 
Golden orange, good and sweet. 
Path is pleasant, safe to feet. 

DOC 



221 



THE BETROTHAL OF A'LAI 

LAI, or A'Lai, as the name is commonly spoken in 
the native tongue, was the youngest child in 
Cheung Lun's family. Cheung A'Lai is her full name. 
The name Lai means " the little one." To be exact, 
it means " the runt," and describes the wee, puny one 
of a litter of young animals. The name was given her 
not only because she was the youngest of her family, 
but also because she Was a delicate child and small of 
her age. Had she grown plump and strong by the 
time she was ten years of age, her name would doubtless 
have been changed to something more becoming her ap- 
pearance. As it is, she has been called just A'lai. 

Cheung was the father's name. Indeed, that was the 
surname of half the dwellers of a certain country village 
near the North River. 

The dwellers of the other half of this particular vil- 
lage were surnamed Chan. Now the clan of Chan is 
mentioned here because, as you shall see, it has some- 
thing to do with the story of A'Lai's betrothal. 

A shallow brook ran through the village, and formed 
the natural boundary between them. The Cheungs 
lived on this side the stream, and the Chans lived on that 
side. There had been no serious quarrel between the 
clans for more than a generation, and so a stone foot- 
bridge had been built over the brook. 

This was done more as a pledge of confidence, each 
in the other clan's friendship, than for any real need of 
a bridge. It was as if the Cheungs had said, " We trust 
you Chans. We believe you are our friends. We will 
build a bridge that you may cross into our village at 
your pleasure." And as if the Chans, not willing to be 

223 



224 



A'Chu and Other Stories 




WOMEN CAKRIERS 




WOMEN UNLOADING CARGO 



The Betrothal of A'Lai 225 

outdone by the good will of the Cheungs, replied, " Not 
so; but we will build our half of the bridge, and the 
Cheungs shall be our friends alway." 

This bridge was seldom used except on occasions of 
betrothals and marriage feasts. At such times it 
became a perfect gala way. For across this bridge the 
sons of Chan took the daughters of Cheung to wife, 
and the Cheungs brought over Chan girls to be wives 
to their clan. 

For all this friendly exchange of daughters, the 
boundary line of the clans was in no way altered. When 
a Chinese girl is married, she is gone. From that day 
she belongs entirely to her husband's family. So it 
continued that those who were born on this side of the 
brook were Cheungs, and those born on that side 
were Chans. 

Only the brook was neutral. It shared its blessings 
freely and equally with dwellers on either side. The 
feathery bamboos grew along its course, tall and grace- 
ful, casting their cooling shade on this side, then on 
that. The Cheung women came and squatted at its 
edge to hear and tell the village news, the while they 
washed clothes in its clear, soft water. The Chan 
women took up their early morning congregation on 
the other bank, where they discussed the weather or 
the latest betrothal as they washed their clothes. 

But the stream was not always helpful. It some- 
times was most cruel. For when the spring rains come 
in torrents, as they sometimes do, by the time this brook 
reaches the Fa Yuen district it becomes a swollen river. 
The waters break through its banks, and spread out 
over the ricefields. Then the flat country becomes a 
lake. If the rain continues, the water rises and floods 



226 A'Chu and Other Stories 

the mud floors of the village homes. Then the people 
make fast the simple furniture, and carry their clothing, 
provisions, cooking utensils, and fuel to the loft under 
the roof, or even to the top of the roof. If the flood 
continues, the growing rice crop will be smothered by 
the water, buried in the mud, or washed away by the 




GATHERING FUEL 



flood. Then a famine follows, with great suffering 
among the poor. 

This is precisely what had happened at the opening 
of this story, when A'Lai was about three years old. 
The rice crop which should have been reaped in 
December had failed for lack of rain. And recently 
the floods had swept away the spring crop. The seed 
grain sown out of great scarcity and privation was lost. 

Cheung Lun rose at the rising of the sun to look out 
on the wreck and ruin of his native village. The lot 
next his own was vacant now, and next to that was 



The Betrothal of A'Lai 227 

only the racked wooden frame of what had once been 
a comfortable village home. 

" Good luck," he said to himself consolingly. His 
own house was standing. He was thankful for that. 

No one asked what had become of those who once 
were the dwellers in these and many other desolated 
homes. Cheung Lun shuddered at recollection of the 
piteous human cries that had reached his ears during 
those fearful nights when the waters raged over the 
village. 

The man turned back into the house. Like a faithful 
wife, Yi Nai had risen early. A kettle of water was 
boiling over a fire of sticks and stubbles her hands 
had gathered and dried in the sun. She turned a steam- 
ing stream of water over a pinch of dried leaves in 
the blue flowered teapot. The vessel was placed in a 
padded tea cozy to brew, and she vanished up the 
stairs to the loft. 

The old man's eyes followed her. She was the young 
wife of his old age, the mother of his only boy. More 
than that, she was also the mother of A'Lai, the pet of 
the household and the joy of the old man's heart. 

The sun rose higher. Men and women crept out 
from their storm-wrecked homes to the duties of the 
day. Yi Nai came back from the loft. She turned a 
cup of tea and brought it to the man in her two small 
brown hands. Then she went with her boy to the 
fields. More yams and vegetables must be grown to 
take the place of the rice which had been destroyed. 
The older girls were directed to gather driftwood or 
stalks and grass to dry for fuel. A'Lai had been given 
a tiny bamboo stool on the sunny side of the house, 
and left to amuse herself. 



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IMMMIMMIMIMIMMMMIMIMIMIIMMIMIMMIMMIIMMIIMMIMIMIIMIMIMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIMII/ 




>■ iiiiiiii i i iiiiimiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiii urn iiiiiiiiiiiiiimimimi 1 

' i mi linn mill I ii i ii mi ii i in mm hi in in i ii in i mi in ii iiiiiiiiiiiiiininiiu 



The Betrothal of A'Lai 229 

The master of the house sat alone — sat in gloom. 
Suddenly he rose and found himself facing the family 
altar with the ancestral tablets hung above it. Yi Nai 
had placed a cup of tea and a single remaining rice cake 
upon the altar. This devotion to the spirits of his 
ancestors touched the old man. The rebellion in his 
heart burst forth. Seizing a bamboo rod, he beat the 
rafters till the tile roof rattled. 

"Rice! Give me rice!" he cried. "This house I 
have inherited from my ancestors. That does not feed 
the hungry. Give me rice! rice! rice!" he clamored as 
the beams echoed the strokes of his rod. 

Cheung left the house and walked toward the bridge. 
Not once did he look back. And A'Lai — she was too 
much terrified by the noisy outbreak within to call after 
him, though he was never used to passing her this way, 
without a loving word or caress. She shrank as he 
passed, and raised her arm to hide her face behind its 
wide sleeve. When he had gone, she looked after him 
with frightened eyes. 

Still he walked — toward the bridge, looking neither 
to the right nor to the left, but always with his eyes 
fixed upon the earth. 

" Good morning," called a cheery voice. The woman 
had scurried to the other side of the path to escape 
being trodden upon. 

" So early morning, Tai Yi Ma ? " the man stam- 
mered, bewildered at being wakened from his gloomy 
thoughts by the very one for whom he was in search. 

"Have you eaten rice?" The friendly, native greet- 
ing struck the old man's heart. 

" Have eaten," he returned politely, and went on 
his way. 



230 A'Chu and Other Stories 

But the air of resolution was gone. " Not today. 
Today, I cannot. I am still able to walk," he said to 
himself, as if to excuse some show of weakness he had 
believed overcome. Was it the soft morning air that 
struck him chill? He pulled his long sleeves over his 
hands and quickened his pace". 

Tai Yi Ma knew well enough that Cheung Lun had 
not eaten rice that morning. She knew that neither 
he nor any member of his family had eaten a full meal 
since the beginning of the flood. Because she knew this, 
she had set out this bright morning to repeat a visit she 
had made some two weeks before to Cheung Lun's home. 

She went her way more slowly now, mincing her 
steps more daintily than before. Magpies called from 
broken boughs, and glossy crows winged their way 
lazily or swooped low over her head, but the go-between 
neither heard nor saw them. 

"So troublesome, this affair! Why should he try to 
deceive me? Sooner or later he will be obliged to sell 
the Little One. He cannot starve. Neither of the other 
girls can be disposed of at present. They are at the 
awkward age, — too old for a ' rearing-marriage ' and 
too young for wives. No one is buying slaves these 
hard times. But I may have a talk with Yi Nai. She 
will not see her husband and son starve to save the 
runt." Thus the woman mused, picking her way 
where the path was smoothest. 

Tai Yi Ma was a professional matchmaker. She 
made a business of mating young couples for marriage. 
She knew the tastes of men and the hearts of women 
as few of her trade do, and, as a rule, Tai Yi Ma's 
matches had been very acceptable. The wealthy Chan 
families who had been willing to pay a good sum for 



The Betrothal of A' Lai 2M 

beautiful wives for their sons, were particularly pleased 
with her selections. This present undertaking was made 
difficult by what she considered the foolish fondness of 
the old father for the little Cheung girl, and also by 
the small amount this particular Chan family was able 
to pay at this particular time. For the flood had de- 
stroyed the rice crop on the Chan side, also. 

When Chan A'So had called the go-between, she had 
begun with a long story of her husband's sickness and 
death. She was still paying rent, she said, on a place 
in which to rest his coffin, besides a fee to the officer 
who was on lookout for a lucky spot for the tomb. 
Lastly the flood — everybody blamed the flood, although 
not aloud, lest the powers of the wind and water re- 
turn and punish them. 

A'So ended by making Tai Yi Ma understand she 
would confer a great favor by searching out a young 
child that might be had at a moderate price to be reared 
as a daughter in Chan A'So's family. This was with 
the understanding, of course, that at the proper age she 
would be married to the eldest son. 

Tai Yi Ma had accepted the honor of this delicate 
undertaking for her clanswoman. She had promised 
to do her best to find the most beautiful and sweet- 
tempered girl in the village. 

If you had met Tai Yi Ma that morning on her way 
to Cheung Lun's home and asked what was the object 
in buying a little girl to be a young boy's bride, she 
would have given you the reason, " Because, it will be 
cheaper to rear her than to pay the much larger price 
required when she is grown up." She might have 
admitted also that Chan A'So had just enough ready 
money to pay the smaller sum now. If that were spent, 



232 A'Chu and Other Stories 

she might not be able to save what would be necessary 
to buy a wife when the time came. The plan was for 
A'So to save her money by investing it in the child 
now, and, by rearing the child herself, save the extra 
money that would be required to buy a grown-up girl 
by and by, when the time for marriage should come. 

She might have mentioned another advantage: Since 
the daughter-in-law will probably live with the mother- 
in-law all her life, if the mother-in-law rears the child, 
she can train it exactly to suit herself. 

If you had asked, "Why buy a girl at all?" she 
would have looked surprised, and replied, "Why? It 
costs parents a lot of money and work to rear a 
daughter! Should they not have some return for it? 
Besides, if the young man or his family cannot get 
money to pay for his bride, how shall we be sure he 
will be able to support his wife?" No doubt she 
would have turned on you with a question in her own 
mind, " Is it true? I have heard it said you foreigners 
give your daughters away ; that a foreign man himself 
chooses his bride, and that he does not pay for her." 
If you acknowledge that she is partly correct, no 
doubt she will receive your words with courtesy, but 
in yout absence she probably will say, "How strange! 
In some things these foreigners seem to be civilized, 
and yet they think so little of daughters as to give them 
away, free — free for nothing! " 

By the time Tai Yi Ma reached the place, A'Lai had 
forgotten her fright. She was playing in the sunshine, 
amusing herself by turning the pieces of driftwood laid 
out to dry, as she had seen her sisters do. 

" How bright and active she is! She certainly will 
be industrious when she grows up," observed the go- 



The Betrothal of A'Lt 



233 



between, pleased to have discovered another good point 
in the child. 

Just to test her temper once more, the woman 
stooped .and pinched the child's arm. A'Lai cringed 
and drew the arm close to her side, looking up with 
eyes big with surprise. She was not used to being 
pinched. 

" Good, good little girl," purred the woman. " She 
certainly has a mild temper. Cause her pain, and even 
then she does not cry. Her hands and feet are small 
and finely formed. Her face is 
fairly good looking," she went 
on, counting over to herself the 
points of excellence she had prom- 
ised Chan A'So to look out for. 

Yi Nai with her boy came 
back to the house for a drink 
of tea. A'Lai reached out both 
hands. " Carry me, carry me! " 
she pleaded. 

The mother gave her some tea, 
then placing the child in the 
baby-carrier and spreading her 
small limbs to either side, skilfully swung the mite of 
a girl onto her own back to rest. 

" So tired ! sleep, sleep," soothed the mother, reach- 
ing back to pat the bundle on her back. The little 
black head dropped on the mother's shoulder, and the 
wee one was soon fast asleep. 

" So thin — thinner by a lot," remarked the go- 
between, with a circular motion of the head that for 
an instant pointed her nose directly at A'Lai. " You 
cannot take care of her. Your family is certainly in 




234 A J Chu and Other Stories 

great trouble," she continued, with a show of sympathy, 
although her real intention was to excite the mother's 
pity for herself, and make her willing to accept the 
offer she had made. 

" Great trouble, indeed," Yi Nai repeated absently. 

" I met Cheung Lun as I was coming," the go-between 
went on. "He, too, is thin. I see him looking very 
old of late," she continued, watching the young wife 
through a narrow corner of her eye, as if to note how 
much more tantalizing her victim could bear. " I 
saw that he walked very slowly, as I looked back," she 
added with a pull at her garments that rattled the 
silver coins in the pouch hanging to her belt. 

Before Tai Yi Ma left Cheung Lun's home, she 
had persuaded his young wife to promise to give up the 
Little One sleeping on her back. She had agreed that 
the baby should be taken across the bridge to become 
a daughter to the Chans. In turn Tai Yi Ma had 
promised to make a present of so many silver round 
pieces to Cheung Lun's family, enough, she assured 
the mother, to keep the whole family till the next harvest. 

The old man heard with grief what had taken place 
in his absence. Not a movement of muscle, no change 
in his features, made sign of the sorrow in his heart. 
No true Chinese may take back a promise made in good 
faith without becoming a rascal. So it was reported 
among the women as they washed clothes at the brook's 
edge, that Cheung Lun's Little One was betrothed 
to a son of Chan A'So. 



Religious Customs of the Chinese 



A QUEER BIRTHDAY PARTY 

A GRAND birthday celebration was to be given 
for an idol kept in the big temple near our 
home. No one pretends to know just how old the 
idol is. It seems queer it should have a birthday 
at all, since it never was born. Everybody admits it 
was made just as any common object is made — of 
wood, stone, or metal — I am not certain which it 
was made of. 

The people of China understand perfectly well that 
their idols are the work of men's hands. Sometimes 
they show us the stamp on the base of the image. 
This explains that the god was made in such a year 
in the reign of such and such a king. But though 
they know the year when the idol was made, they 
do not know the day. 

Perhaps they will call attention to the way the 
idol was made. It may be a " molten image," like 
the golden calf of Israel, — cast from molten metals 
in a mold of clay; or like the cherubim of Solomon's 
temple, it may have been beaten out of a single piece 
of metal. All this shows that they know idols to 
be the work of men's hands. But even so, while 
the Chinese talk in this way, explaining how their 
gods are made, guessing at when they were made 
and what they were made of, still they insist thev 
are alive, and delight to honor them with feasts and 
celebrations. To one who looks on, the conduct of 
the Chinese in worshiping their dumb idols, appears 
like a little girl playing mother to her doll, or like 
the small boy who straddles a stick and makes 
believe it is his pony. 

237 



238 A'Chu and Other Stories 

However, idol worship is really a serious matter 
to those who believe in it. They particularly like 
to believe the idol is very old, since, they say, he 
must have grown wise in a long lifetime. 

Once I asked a man whom I met at a small shrine 
beside our street, whether he thought the idol in that 
shrine came from heaven or whether it had been made. 

" Most certainly, it is man-made," he said. 

"Is it able of itself to move about from place to 
place? " I inquired. 

"O no, indeed! It cannot move from this spot. 
We must bring its food to it, and ourselves come 
here to worship," he replied. 

" If you must feed and care for the idol, how 
then do you believe it is able to give you the things 
you ask for? " 

"Do you not understand?" and he looked as if he 
thought me simple. " We do not worship the idol, 
but only the spirit of a god that dwells in it. So 
long as we burn candles and incense and bring it 
food and drink, the spirit continues with the idol. 
If we should cease our care, the spirit would become 
discontented and go away. But this idol is alive," he 
declared energetically. " It speaks to me often when 
I am at home on my bed. It has promised me good 
luck. Sometime it will give me great riches." 

This is usually the case with idol worshipers. They 
do not worship their gods in order that they them- 
selves may become better or purer, but because they 
wish the god to keep them from losing their money, 
from becoming sick, or from some other harm ; or 
they worship because they hope the gods will give 
them some other worldly benefit or selfish desire. 



A Queer Birthday Party 239 

It was in the hope of some such earthly reward that 
the whole neighborhood around the big temple turned 
out to give this grand celebration in honor of the 
birthday of their god. 

The god who was given this birthday party is kept 
in a shrine facing a wide door of the temple which 
opens onto the street. Once this shrine was bright 




BUDDHIST PKIESTS AT WOBSHIP 



red decorated with gold, but now it is so grimed with 
the smoke of incense and covered with dust that one 
would not try to guess how it did look. In the early 
morning a company of worshipers, mostly well-dressed 
women, may be seen before this shrine, kneeling low, 
till their foreheads touch the brick floor. 

A number of priests live in the temple, and are 
supposed to wait on the services of this god. But 
the priests like to drink wine, to smoke, and to shake 



240 A'Chu and Other Stories 

dice, better than to work ; and so, though the temple 
is rather grand on the outside, it gets very dirty on 
the inside, and things lie about in slack disorder. 

Once a year, on what is called its birthday, this 
idol is given a celebration. On such occasions it is 
taken out of the temple and carried through the streets. 
It is supposed to bring good luck to the people living 
on the street through which it passes. Naturally the 
priests promise that the idol procession will pass the 
street that raises the most money to pay for the cele- 
bration. Rich people pay large sums for this purpose, 
and even the small shops give more than they can 
afford. In addition to their gifts, the homes and shops 
hang out long strings of firecrackers, reaching from the 
top of the doorframes to the doorsills at the bottom. 
These are fired off as the procession goes by. 

" This one is a very old and powerful idol," the 
house boy had told us the day before. " It will 
come past here tomorrow morning. The procession 
will walk an hour [passing the house], so long it 
is," he continued, with evident satisfaction that we 
would have the opportunity of seeing what great things 
his people could do. Perhaps he thought we would 
give some money to help pay for the expense of 
the parade. 

The procession was announced to start in the 
morning, but we knew that meant it would start any 
time everything was ready. We also knew that the 
fuss and noise of getting ready is considered quite 
as much honor to the god as the display itself would be. 

There is little outside amusement or excitement 
for a missionary's children, and ours were deter- 
mined not to miss the sights on this occasion. Early 



A Queer Birthday Party 241 

in the morning they gathered their playthings into the 
wide veranda, ready to look out at a moment's notice. 
Play with everyday toys was dull in' comparison with 
the expected show, and playthings were often cast aside 
while three white faces gazed longingly over the window 
sill into the dull street. No one wanted to go to the 
dining-room at luncheon time, for fear of missing the 
sights. However, the meal passed without interruption, 
and the children again took up their wait in the half- 
open, second-story veranda. 

Suddenly there was a stir below. A crier ran 
down the street, calling to right and left, " The 
idol is coming! " Following closely, five men rushed 
past, the two in front clanging brass cymbals while 
the three others at their heels piped shrill musettes. 

The people left their business and flocked into the 
street, completely filling the open space. But a band of 
soldiers soon cleared the way. First came a company of 
priests with clean-shaven heads. They wore bright- 
yellow robes and wide, rough straw hats hanging on 
their backs. After the priests came the long, long pro- 
cession. 

First in the line was a row of young children 
mounted on small horses. The animals were covered 
with richly embroidered tapestries of silk over their 
backs and sides. The bridles and saddles were gayly 
decorated. The children were little ones, some of 
them mere babies, not more than two or three years 
old. All were dressed in bright silk garments em- 
broidered in silk or gold and silver thread, and 
trimmed with snow-white fur. Besides the one or 
two grooms who led each horse, each small child was 
attended by two men, one walking at either side, each 
16 



242 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



holding a small hand to keep the ljttle one from fall- 
ing off. Some of these children were little daughters 
from the best homes. Each child that takes part is 




© u. & u., N. Y. 

HALL OF THE FIVE HUNDRED GENII 

Images of " the five hundred early followers of Buddha, 
who sit in smug, self-satisfied poses in Flowery Forest 
Monastery." 

lent the costly garment it wears, is given a lot of good- 
ies to eat, and a present of money to take home. What 
is of greatest importance to the parents, in return for 



A Queer Birthday Party 243 

this service of honor, the idol is supposed to bestow 
special blessings on these children throughout the com- 
ing year. 

A great many rich banners were carried in the 
procession. Some were very beautiful, and so finely 
embroidered by hand that one piece must have re- 
quired the labor of one person for several years. 
The Chinese dragon was represented on banners car- 
ried high on long poles. The raised figures of this 
scaly creature were embroidered in bright gold on black 
cloth. It appeared through fleecy clouds of silver em- 
broidery, rushing madly with wide-open mouth after a 
bright-red sun at the farthest corner of the banner. 
Other banners bore mottoes in large gold letters on 
scarlet or blue cloth, but many of them were intended 
only to add color and show to the long line. 

Very large umbrellas, meant only for show, ap- 
peared in the procession now and then. Each of these 
was carried by three men, at the top of a pole much 
higher than the bearers' heads. These, also, were very 
gay, flashing in the sunshine hundreds of tiny gilt- 
rimmed mirrors sewed on in the midst of the embroid- 
ery that literally covered their brilliant tops. Around 
the edge dropped a gay band of silken material ending 
in a deep scarlet fringe. 

Quite as full of gay colors, reflected by as many glit- 
tering mirrors, were the huge fans borne in the same 
manner as the gaudy umbrellas. The umbrellas and big 
fans, with their numberless shining mirrors, added a 
particularly bright touch to the scene. 

Now we understood the house boy's meaning, as well 
as why the procession had been so late that morning 
in starting. 



244 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" There will be no procession today unless the sun 
comes out," he had replied to the children's inquiry 
why the parade was so slow in appearing. 

"Why, A'Lun, why won't the procession come? 
It doesn't rain," the children urged. 

" No, it doesn't rain, but unless the sun shines 
there is not much for the idol to see," he explained. 

This display of color and tinsel was to be given 
for the pleasure and satisfaction of the idol. If the 
sun did not shine to make the bright colors glow, 
the mirrors to glitter, the gold and silver thread to 
shine, and the precious stones to sparkle, the god 
would not feel that its birthday celebration was very 
grand. Consequently its blessings would be stinted in 
proportion. 

But the sun did shine that afternoon, and the sight 
was brilliant enough to dazzle the eyes of anything but 
a graven image. 

After this show came the feast. Immense trays 
bearing whole roast pigs were carried by four men 
with poles. Carved wooden canopies, almost as tall 
and heavy as a Chinese bridal chair, were reared over 
the trays. Where the canopies were particularly 
large and heavy, the piece was carried by eight men. 
Other trays held roast chicken in large numbers, or 
duck or goose in like abundance. Still other carriers 
bore heaps of small cakes of all sorts and many colors. 
Fruits of various varieties were added to the feast, 
and besides these were sweetmeats and delicacies cal- 
culated to tempt the appetite of the most particular 
god. All these, and other things too many to men- 
tion, were displayed in the most enticing manner in 
this more than royal feast. 




© U. « U., N. ¥. 



THE KING OF BEGGARS 



245 



246 A'Chu and Other Stories 

As the procession passed, we had opportunity to 
look into the faces of the men who took part in 
this birthday celebration, and to see for ourselves what 
kind of persons they were. To our surprise we did 
not see the neighborhood shopkeepers, nor the carpen- 
ters, stone masons, and other men of trades, nor yet 
the working men of our street. What we did see 
were the thin, bony bodies, clawlike hands, and sallow 
faces of opium smokers. Some had apparently begun 
the use of tobacco when they were young. Their 
bodies were dwarfed. They were humpbacked and 
bow-legged. Most of them showed dull faces and 
bleared eyes. Street hanger, beggar, gambler, thief, 
opium sot, — these were the characters plainly written 
on the faces of those men in the long line of that 
idol procession. 

To be sure, bright garments borrowed from the 
temple had been put on most of them, so that they 
might appear beautiful, but underneath were the soiled 
and tattered garments of worthless men; and hidden 
deeper down were the hardened, sinful hearts of men 
who had forgotten God. They served in the idol 
processjon to obtain a share in the feast when at the 
close of the day these things offered to the idol should 
be divided among those who had taken part in the 
celebration. 

Clang! clang! clang! sounded the big brass gong 
carried on a pole between two men. After the gong 
came the idol itself, at the end of the procession. 
All that gorgeous display of color and art, and the 
long line of good things to feast upon, had been 
passed down the street before its eyes and for its 
gratification. 



A Queer Birthday Party 241 

The idol was a little ugly black image seated on 
a big, real-ebony throne. Over it was a canopy of 
ebony, wonderfully carved and inlaid with mother- 
of-pearl. This was a very heavy piece; and to show 
respect to the god, as well as because the throne was 
so heavy, not less than twenty men, with poles, had 
been set to carry it. As the procession passed, the 
crowd pressed together again, and followed the sense- 
less idol through the city, back to its home in the 
temple. The helpless thing was set again in its 
place in the dingy shrine. The crowd disappeared, 
and gradually the streets became quiet as before. 

Just before sunset the idol was taken out again and 
set in the open square before the temple doors. At this 
time a great display of brilliant fireworks took place. 
It is believed that whoever catches a spent rocket as it 
comes down, will have good fortune. To the Chinese, 
this means that he will have sons, long life, happiness, 
riches, or whatever he most wishes for. The people 
fairly trampled upon one another in trying to catch the 
pieces of scorched paper as they fluttered back to earth. 

The sun dropped below the horizon, and darkness 
came down. The crowds scattered to their homes. 
But in mind I see them still — those hopeless faces 
of women who are the most sincere and devoted idol 
worshipers in China, and those other hardened faces 
of men whose hearts are set against God. There 
is little hope that these wasted lives can be rescued 
and brought to Christ. But above these I see the 
sweet, childish faces of innocent boys and girls. 
Unless we stir ourselves to teach them the true way 
of life, will not these, too, follow their idols, p^st 
all help of turning, on to sin and death ? 



WAYS THAT ARE STRANGE 

SOME things the Chinese do seem strange to us 
who live at the opposite side of the earth. We 
call them our " antipodes," a word which means, 
literally, " opposite feet," for the Chinese are the people 
whose feet are opposite ours on the earth's surface. 
They get up in the morning when we go to bed at 
night. Their children play or go to school while we 
sleep at night. This seemed very strange to me when 
a child. Nor could I understand how people are 
able to live with their feet standing up and their 
heads hanging down. What a topsy-turvy place it 
must be where people do everything exactly upside 
down ! 

Later, when I went to China, things did not seem 
so strange as my childish imagination had pictured. To 
the Chinese, down is toward his feet and the center 
of the earth, the same as it is to us; up is the direction 
in which his head points, toward the sky. In China rain 
falls down and smoke goes up. Everything in nature 
moves in an orderly way and right side up, just as it 
does in our own land. 

In some respects the Chinese people themselves are 
not so very different from the inhabitants of our half 
of the globe. To be sure, every man, woman, and 
child has black hair, dark eyes, and a yellow skin. 
But color of hair, eyes, and skin does not make an 
individual. 

At that time Chinese boys wore the head smoothly 

shaved part way back, but left the hair to grow long at 

the crown. This long hair was braided in a queue 

to hang down the back. But does the way one 

248 



Ways That Are Strange. 249 

combs his hair make a difference in him as an in- 
dividual? Suppose a boy who had always worn 
bushy, touseled hair were suddenly to have his hair 
cut, neat and trim, would that make him a different 
boy? Is it not rather the way persons think and 
feel that makes them what they are? 

WHAT THE CHINESE THINK ABOUT GOD 

No one thing that people think about has so 
much influence on their ways of doing as does what 
they think about God. So in this case. The Chinese 
have reasons for their strange ways, and most of 
these reasons are founded in their ways of thinking 
about God, or what we call their religion. It is as 
if they looked at things around them through glasses 
colored by false religious ideas. They see fairies, 
ghosts, and goblins, smoke, fire, and blood, where there 
is only clear air and blue sky. 

They do not know God as a being whose eyes 
" run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show 
himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is 
perfect toward him." They have not heard the word, 
" God so loved the world that he gave his only be- 
gotten Son." 

WORSHIP OF SPIRITS 

To the great majority of the Chinese the practice 
of religion consists principally in the worship of spirits. 
They believe themselves surrounded by a world of 
spirits. To their imagination these spirits are as real 
as are their living friends. Some are friendly, helpful 
spirits. To these they pay little attention, no more 
than is sufficient to keep them friendly. Unfriendly 
spirits are thought to be always at hand to spoil the 



250 



A'Ghu and Other Stories' 



best-laid plans. To bring sickness, accident, and 
bad luck appears to be their special delight. These 
evil spirits are the object of constant worship and 
sacrifice, in the effort to appease their supposed anger. 
The fact that spirits ordinarily may not be seen, 
greatly increases their terrors. It is bad enough to 
be hunted by an enemy in flesh and blood — one 

that may be seen and 
either evaded or met 
openly and conquered. 
But forever to be in 
danger from invisible 
spirits skulking about and 
bent on mischief, puts 
one in constant fear. 

DECEIVING THE SPIRITS 

The man who under- 
takes a journey on foot 
does not choose a short 
cut by a direct path. 
That would maka it too 
easy for the spirits to fol- 
low him. Spirits travel 
most easily in a straight line. They are likely to be 
confused by an abrupt turn in the road and to lose the 
way. For this reason footpaths twist and wind in and 
out between the fields. The traveler is quite willing to 
walk the farther distance, and by a winding way, if by 
so doing he may be at peace. He chooses the crooked 
road rather than be troubled in the way by spirits that 
may cause him to lose a sandal from his foot, slip on 
the narrow path, or fall into a ditch at its side, to break 




PROFESSIONAL EAR CLEANER 



Ways That Are Strange 251 

a cart wheel or upset his loaded wheelbarrow. The 
Chinese love peace, and will go the long way to se- 
cure it. 

It seemed strange to us that the large boats moored 
in the river before our home always completed their 
preparations for a voyage by firing a string of crackers 
at the stern. The loud bang! of a very big cracker was 




IX THE BARBER SHOP 



the signal for the boat to start. As it swung around, 
heading out to sea, handfuls of paper scraps were thrown 
out from its bow. 

Later we learned that the firing of crackers was 
intended either to deafen or to frighten away the spirits. 
The flying papers were meant to attract the attention 
of inquisitive spirits, and so give the sailors an oppor- 
tunity to slip out of harbor unmolested. This is a 
form of worship intended to secure a safe voyage. 



252 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



Among even the very poor of China a large sum of 
money and much time is spent in the effort to turn 
away the anger of these invisible enemies. A few in- 
cidents, such as missionaries meet almost daily in their 
work among the people of China, will help the reader 
to understand that the fear of evil spirits is the reason 
for many strange doings of the Chinese. 




MOTHER AND DA U UJtiXEK 



WHICH ONE WAS SICK? 

IN a quarter of the city across the river from our home 
in Canton, a native woman was seated at the 
entrance to one of the homes of wealth. She was neat 
and tidy looking. Her nimble fingers sent the needle 
flying swiftly in and out through the brown glazed 
fabric. She was a sewing woman, — one who goes from 
house to house making garments by the piece, and sits 
outside the door at the side of the street while she 
works. 

The only amusement of the little daughter who sat 
beside the woman was to watch passers-by, and her only 
employment to thread the needle from a skein around 
her neck. The mother rested the short moment the 
threading was done, and then the needle flew again. 
The pair had come at sunrise, and would stay till 
sunset. 

At sight of a foreign woman, the little one twisted 
her neck stiffly, and gazed up curiously from under her 
eyebrows. There was a large lump on her neck, and 
her head was tipped to one side to make room for the 
swelling. The shoulder on the other side was drawn 
up rigidly to prevent the muscles from pulling at the 
sore place. Her face was very pale except for a flushed 
spot on each cheek. Very thin and frail she looked, 
perched on a tiny bamboo stool with neither back nor 
arm rests. Poor little thing! I thought. 

" Allow me to show you the way to the heal-sick 
house," I said to the mother. " The doctor is there 
this moment. She will cure your child." 

I had just come from the doctor's dispensary, where 
a waiting-room full of mothers and their sick babies 

253 



254 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



were receiving the most tender and skilful medical 
treatment. 

I meant to help the poor mother, but she did not 
take it so. Casting aside her sewing work, she sprang 
to her feet with startled eyes. Gesturing with her 
hands, she fairly screamed, "Who is sick? You only 
are sick. Get away! Get away! We here have no 
troubles." 

This is strange, I thought. How can she deny that 
the child is sick and suffering? 

A workman who had observed the incident followed 
me to apologize for her conduct. Perhaps he was a 
Christian, I do not know. 

" Do not be offended," he said, " she does not 
mean to be rude. It is only that she is a very much 
fear-devils woman. She fears your words will attract 
the attention of evil spirits to her child, and so she 
thinks they will gather around it and cause it to die. 
She loves her child. She called you the sick one, 
hoping the evil spirits may be deceived, and follow 
away after you. You teachers are not afraid of spirit- 
devils, are you ? " he added, reassuringly. 




A ROPE FACTORY 



WHY AMAH WAS AFRAID IN THE TENT 

THE sun beat hot on the rock-nubbed, sand-patched 
hillside. A new tent with a fly over it had been 
pitched near the house, and the children of two families 
had gathered under it to play. A Chinese woman came 
out to sit in its shade. She liked to see the children play. 
Three of her own had been left back in the country 
when she came to the city to find work. 

"Isn't this fine, Amah?" called the largest boy. He 
was lying on his stomach on a spot of green grass 
with his bare feet straight up in the breeze. 

" Very cool, much cooler than in the house. The 
heavens are hot today," replied the woman, seating her- 
self in the door of the tent. This " cloth house," as 
she called it, was something new, and the sea breeze 
was refreshing to the tired woman. 

" Tonight it will be very hot in the house. We could 
bring out some mats and sleep in the tent," suggested 
the lad. To sleep all night in a tent would be quite 
an adventure to this boy, accustomed to the close quar- 
ters of a missionary's home. 

"Oh, let's do it!" chimed the other children. The 
children all spoke Chinese. Children like the short 
words and running, musical tones of the native speech. 

"Will you come, Amah?" asked the boy on the 
grass, recollecting it would be dark when time to sleep 
came. 

" No, I certainly will not come." She spoke decidedly, 
quite unusual for a Chinese woman. 

"Why not? Please come," he coaxed. "This place 
will be very cool." 

"Humph!" was her only reply. 

255 



Why Amah Was Afraid 257 

The boy turned to look. Her eyes were far away 
and her face looked serious. 

"Afraid of the dark?" he teased, crawling toward 
her in the grass. 

" Not afraid of the dark. Of the dark there is no 
cause for fear," she added cautiously. " But I would 
not sleep out here for heaps of money." 

" Of what are you afraid ? " This question he asked 
out of real interest, for now Amah's eyes looked scared 
as they ran out over the hillside and down among the 
patches of grain and vegetable gardens as if search- 
ing for something of which she really was very much 
afraid. 

Amah did not care to explain. According to her 
way of thinking, neither her fears nor the things of 
which she was afraid were subjects to be spoken of 
aloud. 

"Ah, ha! Amah," the bo/ bantered thoughtlessly, 
"are you afraid of spirits?" How could he guess the 
terrible fear in her soul that caused her face to pale 
at his words? 

" Most certainly, I am afraid of devil-spirits. I would 
not sleep here for riches," she declared. Now that the 
two dreaded words had been spoken, there was no more 
peace for her in the cool shade of the tent. She got 
up and went immediately back to her room in the house. 

" Don't be afraid, Amah. There is nothing to fear," 
the children called after her, but she could not be per- 
suaded to come back. 

The fear of spirits was not a joke with her. The 

farther hillside was dotted with graves, and the knolls 

out among the patches of field were topped with tombs 

built of stone or brick spread with cement. Some were 

17 



258 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



freshly whitewashed, and set like marble rings in the 
green-covered mounds. Others were crumbling with 
decay. 

In this woman's mind a spirit hovered over every one 
of those graves. Any moment a restless spirit might go 
careening over the hillside straight through the open 
tent. Should it chance to be a bad spirit, or a good one 
provoked by being disturbed of its rest, something ter- 
rible might happen to any person it encountered in the 
way. That was why Amah was afraid to stay out in 
the tent. 




WOMAN WATEE CARRIER 



WHAT THE WATER CARRIER FEARED 

A DREADFUL typhoon, or " big wind," as the word 
means, swept over the country. The sea was 
whipped to a mass of foam. The waves rose high, one 
after another, with great gulfs between. They shot 
out frothy tongues to lap in the boats. Seagoing vessels 
were tossed about like corks in a pool. A great ocean 
steamer caught by the wind was lifted completely out 
of the sea and carried over onto the dry land. 

There was no sleep for the sampan people that night. 
They bound their boats together as they lay side by 
side, and clung to the shore for life. Some lost their 
hold, and were swept away by the storm. 

At last the darkness passed. The wind had fled with 
its prey. The sun rose to warm and cheer the earth 
once more. 

The water-woman came to fill the water jars. We al- 
ways called her the water-woman, though I suppose she 
had a real name of her own. She made a business of 
carrying water for the neighborhood. Twice a week 
and on the evening before wash day she brought water 
from the river to fill the big stone jars that contained 
the water supply for our household purposes. 

This morning she slipped stealthily through the gates, 
and very quietly set down her two buckets inside. Turn- 
ing quickly, she pulled the two doors together and barred 
the gate behind her. She seemed to feel herself in 
danger of something I could not see. As she turned 
to lift the burden again, I met her in the doorway. 
Perhaps she felt compelled to explain her mysterious 
conduct, or did she hope to find comfort from sharing 
her fears? 

259 



260 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" Did you hear it, madam? Last night there struck 
a very big wind," she said hoarsely. 

"I heard it — a big wind indeed!" I answered. 

She came close to me, for she dared not speak aloud 
what was in her mind : " The big dragon is very angry," 
she whispered. 

<» "Where is the dragon? What has he to do with the 
typhoon? " I asked. 

"What! You do not know?" She seemed surprised 
at such dense ignorance on my part. " The great 
dragon is in the sea, sometimes in the sky. He has 
very seldom been seen. When angered, he sends out a 
great wind or beats the water terribly with his tail. 
He it is who brought the storm," she explained. " Peo- 
ple say he is terribly angry now." 

The water-woman could not read. She was a poor, 
hard-working woman, who had little time for other 
things than her water buckets. One could easily ex- 
cuse her for believing such superstitious stories. 

However, it is not the poor women only who believe 
that winds and storms are caused by an angry dragon. 
High officers of the government, teachers, merchants, ship 
owners, and people in general, live in constant fear of 
the mysterious dragon's power. 



WHY THE FARMER'S MULE BALKED 

A MULE and cart stood by the roadside in a small 
country village, while the driver unloaded the cart, 
piling the stalks on a dry mound of earth. For a while 
he worked without looking up or taking notice of what 
was going on around. Then he paused and pushed back 
the cloth cap. The rabbit-fur lining fell out in a roll 
about his face. Tabs of the same gray fur hung down 
at either side, like the ears of a whipped dog. 

The mule in the thills nibbled at some straws of dried 
millet strewn by the roadside. Everything was all right 
with the mule. He heard the stalks scritch -scratch, as 
they rustled into the heap at the side of the cart. Things 
had happened this way a number of times of late. The 
mule guessed his load would soon be off, and he could 
go back to his stall. His long ears dropped languidly 
over a satisfied countenance, and his front legs relaxed 
comfortably. Indeed, his whole attitude was quite in 
contrast with the worried disappointment of his tired 
master. 

As may easily be imagined, the man himself was not 
. at all satisfied or comfortable. The rent was due on his 
plot of ground and his miserable hovel. A family of 
children, with ever-hollow stomachs, were waiting to be 
fed. More than this, debts must be paid, or the small 
mule and cart would be sold to pay his creditors. These 
had been his principal means of income. What could 
he do without them? His fists clenched. What could 
he do with them if the mule would not pull? His teeth 
gritted as the heavy jaws came together. Drops of 
sweat oozed from under the rabbit-skin lining, and trick- 
led down his face, at the thought of a certain old 

261 



262 



A J Chu and Other Stories 




COOLIES CAEBYIXG CASES OF OIL 

woman. She it was who was the cause of his misfor- 
tunes, both of the debt and of the balky mule. 

This man's experience had been unusual. Chinamen 
seldom have difficulties with their mothers-in-law. Usu- 
ally the wife lives with the husband's mother, and must 
take what the older woman chooses to give. In this 
case, however, things were turned about. His wife's 
mother had been so overbearing and irritable that she 



The Balky Mule 263 

was not wanted in her own son's home, and so she came 
to live with her daughter. 

Here she acted in the same disagreeable way. Noth- 
ing they did pleased her, and she would do nothing to 
please them. In keeping with the usual contrariety of 
her life, she died at a most inconvenient time. That 
season the dry weather had burned up the crop, and the 
money required to give her a respectable burial had to 
be borrowed from the money lender. The mule and 
cart were mortgaged as security for the loan. 

That should have been enough mischief for one old 
woman, thought the farmer. But this was the least 
mischievous as the son-in-law looked at her doings. 
Hear his tale of misfortunes as one by the roadside heard 
it that morning: 

" Ah, ha, good morning," greeted his short neighbor 
with a very stout front. "Have you eaten rice?" 

" Not yet," gloomily returned the very lean man by 
the cart. 

" What's the trouble now? " inquired a near-by neigh- 
bor, who knew how balky the mule had become of late. 
"Again he will not walk? Beat him — why don't you 
beat him? " 

The owner shook his head. " It's no use. He only 
kicks and plunges. I never could do anything with that 
old woman," he said gloomily. 

"What, fear he has a devil?" inquired the friendly 
neighbor. He was used to thinking that explained every 
unusual occurrence. 

"Right! He surely has," returned the owner em- 
phatically. " He was always a steady, hard-working 
mule till the mother-in-law died. Now he is ugly and 
stubborn, just like she was. Coaxing is of no use. 



264 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



Beating does no good. Her spirit has gotten into my 
mule. Oh, my misfortune! " he groaned in despair. 

In some such way the Chinese attribute their mis- 
fortunes, whether sickness and death, failure in business, 
or loss of property, to the influence of spirits. It is not 
always so plain as it appears to have been to this farmer, 
just what these spirits are nor from where they came. 
It is not like the Chinese to inquire closely into such 
matters. The fathers have believed lies, and their chil- 
dren continue to be deceived by them. But this belief 
in spirits accounts for many ways of the Chinese that 
seem so very strange to us. 




© U. & TL, N. Y. 

PORT ARTHUR HARBOR, MANCHURIA 



MATCHING WITS WITH THE SPIRITS 

THE Chinese have put their wits to work and in- 
vented all sorts of devices to keep the spirits out of 
their homes. Paper traps are fastened to the doorframes 
to entagle them. These traps consist of sheets of paper 
cut into alternating slits through the center, leaving a 
margin intact all the way around. A sheet is tacked to 
the top of the doorframe and a short way down on either 
side. This stretches the slits open. Spirits in flight will 
be caught if they attempt to come into the house 
through the open slits in the trap. 

Another trap is made by cutting red paper into strips 
about two inches wide, leaving a margin at one side 
only. This margin is then tacked to the doorframe at 
the top, over a broken pane of oiled paper in the window, 
or to any other open spot in the house. One might take 
the fluttering red strips for some simple decoration in 
honor of a guest or the birth of a son. Not so; they 
are there to frighten away wandering spirits. 

Still another device is watchmen set at the door of the 
better class of dwellings, as well as at the openings to 
temples and other public places. Very powerful, warlike, 
and fierce they look. The stranger wonders if it will 
be quite safe to pass through a doorway under the care 
of such dangerous-looking guards. But the native trots 
by with his burden or strolls with his fan, apparently 
unconscious of their presence. If he thinks about them at 
all, he feels the safer because they are there. Evil spirits 
will not linger long where such hideous and fierce-looking 
creatures defend the peace. 

" How did the Chinese come to observe the strange 
custom of placing watchmen at their doors?" 

265 




© U. & U., N. Y. 



LOADED WITH CASES OF TEA 



The twelve-year-old lad is carrying 80 pounds, and his 
father 350 pounds, and they are starting on a 400-mile trip 
over the mountains between Tat-sien-lu and Yachow, on the 
Tibetan border. It will take them 20 days. 



266 



Matching Wits 267 

" Long ago," explained the teacher, " there lived a 
great and good emperor who made war upon the ene- 
mies of his country. He successfully beat them back, 
and restored peace and order throughout the kingdom. 
His people praised him for his bravery. They loved and 
honored him for his good and wise rule. 

" One day the good king was taken ill, — very, very 
ill. The fever burned in his veins. Strange noises tor- 
mented his ears. When he closed his eyes to sleep, ter- 
rible sights crept into his dreams. Always his enemies 
came sweeping down to crush him. With cries of alarm 
he would spring from his bed, and stagger toward his 
armor, only to swoon in the effort. Fever and delirium 
were fast wasting his strength. 

" When his knights heard how their lord was tor- 
mented with fears, the bravest of them gathered at the 
palace equipped in armor and bearing their heaviest 
weapons of war. On their honor they promised the 
king to guard the palace from all danger, to keep watch 
over his couch, and sleep not night or day till he was 
well. Their promise brought quiet and peace to the 
king's mind. Under guard of his faithful followers, he 
slept and was restored to health." 

Of course a scheme that worked so magically for the 
king would be taken as good for his subjects, too. How- 
ever, since the enemies they fear are only spirits and not 
real living Tartars, the people use sham watchmen, just 
as they sham everything else for the spirits. 

As one sees them now, these watchmen are sometimes 
gigantic wooden figures, painted in frightful red and 
black, with trappings and weapons of contrasting colors. 
Before a very wealthy home, the yamen, or a temple, 
they may be cast of bronze or other metal, weather- 



268 A'Chu and Other Stories 

stained to black. Commonly the door watchman of a 
dwelling is merely a cheap, painted figure on paper, 
tacked more frequently to the inner or second door of 
the dwelling. 

The mention of a second opening suggests still an- 
other device for preventing evil spirits in the home. 
Often a short partition is built inside the door, a few 
feet back from the entrance and a little wider than this 
opening. Spirits in headlong motion through the air 
are liable to strike this partition and be stunned or thrown 
backward into the street. 

Once in early spring a number of baskets full of 
long flag leaves tied in bundles were set in the open 
space before our house. The hawkers called their goods 
off loudly. The people came in an almost continuous 
line — men, women, and children. Each person bought 
with the most serious air, bundles, — one, two, three, 
or more, — and passed on. 

"What will they use those sweet-flag leaves for?" 
I wondered. 

Still the serious faces kept coming and the solemn 
figures going, till curiosity for the time completely over- 
came all interest in the language teacher's best efforts. 
Seeing I was more occupied with something in the street 
than with my lesson, he got up and walked to the 
other side of the veranda to see what was distracting 
his pupil's attention. 

" Sir, are sweet-flag leaves used for medicine in this 
country?" I was thinking only of how many people 
must be ill that morning, wondering if some new, ter- 
rible epidemic had broken out. 

" Not for medicine," the teacher replied with an amused 
smile. He was a Christian Chinese. " See," he ex- 



Matching Wits 



269 



plained, " the leaf is shaped like a sword. The people 
hang them by a string from the top of the doorframes. 
They thrust them through a broken place in the win- 
dow, out from an open space under the eaves, or through 
a cracked tile in the roof. One of these sword-shaped 
leaves is put wherever a spirit might be able to creep 
through, to frighten away these enemies. 

" Our people of the Middle Kingdom [a favorite 
term for the Chinese] are very much afraid of devil- 
spirits. Such terrible fear!" the teacher added, looking 
on sadly. 

There is hope of victory over an enemy of one's 
own size and strength. But with such as these, that 
may creep through a crevice under the eaves, a cracked 
tile in the roof, or a torn place in the window, the Chi- 
nese feels there is but a narrow way out. He must 
either pacify his enemy with flatteries, gifts, and offer- 
ings, or outwit him with tricks. This is their reason 
for the worship of spirits. 




MISSION IN KIANGSU 



A BEGGAR IN THE SPIRIT WORLD 

SOON after we settled in Canton, a woman fifty 
years old began to call often at our home. She 
was employed as cook in a large family, but during her 
spare time she came daily " to read," as she called it. 
Though she made little advancement in learning the 
Chinese characters, she appeared so very desirous of study- 
ing the Bible that we could not refuse the time required 
to teach her. 

" I do not believe in the idols; I desire to enter your 
church," she said frankly one day. 

I told her how glad I was to know she had come 
to believe the idols were vain and useless things, and 
hoped she might soon learn to love and obey the true 
God. But she must be patient and study, I explained. 
There would be time enough to speak of joining the 
church when she had learned more about the gospel. 

After a time she learned that missionaries employ women 
to go about teaching the Bible to other women in their 
homes. She came again, and this time asked to be 
trained as a Bible woman. All that she would ask in 
return for her whole time was food and clothing. 

She seemed to think that if she were told what to 
say, and could go among the women and say it, that 
would be teaching the Bible. 

When finally she was made to understand that no one 
who cannot read is prepared to go out as a teacher, 
she still remained steadfast in her purpose. She was 
willing to study, she said, till she could read " the 
Holy Book." 

Why was she so persistent in wishing to study? 
It seemed impossible for her to remember the names of 
270 



A Beggar in the Spirit World 271 

only two or three characters from one day to the next. 
More than this, the Chinese are a thrifty people. Why 
was she ready to work for a bare living — food and 
clothing and shelter, with no money at all? It seemed 
quite clear we did not yet understand the woman's real 
motive. 

At the next visit the whole truth came out. On this 
occasion she seemed to have lost interest in reading. 
She proposed to do our family work — washing, ironing, 
cooking, anything we might ask. As before, all the 
pay required would be shelter, food, and clothes. 

She seemed to be much disappointed when her offer 
was not accepted at once. While I tried to teach her, 
she sat thinking her own thoughts, which from the ex- 
pression on her face I concluded were not very cheer- 
ful ones. Finally she broke out suddenly with the ques- 
tion, " Will you take care of your church members if 
they get sick? " 

She was told the gospel teaches Christians to help 
one another in trouble. Her face grew brighter. 

" Would Christians buy a coffin for a church member 
too poor to pay for his own burial?" 

That, too, might be, if necessary. 

" Would the church provide also for the regular wor- 
ship of the spirit of one so poor?" 

Now the secret was out. This, then, was her real 
object. She was willing to become a slave in this life, 
if by such means she might escape being a wandering 
beggar in the spirit world. 

This woman had never been married, had no child of 
her own, and was too poor to buy a boy to adopt as 
a son. When an infant she had been sold into a strange 
family. She did not know of one living relative. Now 



272 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



she was growing old. The time might come when she 
would not be able to work longer. Who would care 
for her then? She felt sad and lonely at the thought. 

That, however, was but a light thing in comparison 
with what she feared in the spirit world. To be a 
homeless, helpless, wandering beggar in the spirit world 
— to beg, and want, and suffer, and perhaps finally to 
become a cruel and hateful spirit, going up and down 
the world doing mischief, was more than the kind-hearted 
working woman could bear to think of. She was will- 
ing to give up the last pleasure or comfort in this life, 
and to endure any hardship, if so she might escape such 
a fate in the spirit world. Would she count any sac- 
rifice too great, think you, to win everlasting joy in the 
kingdom of the redeemed? 

It gives the missionary great satisfaction to point such 
lonely and troubled hearts to the promises of God. 
This promise of our Saviour, " In my Father's house 
are many mansions. ... I go to prepare a place for you. 
... I will come again, and receive you unto myself," 
seemed very cheering and comforting to this lonely 




THE ROADWAY TO MING TOMBS, NANKING 



THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS 

THE day was clear and bright, and though March 
had, scarcely come to its close in South China, the 
air was soft and warm, as of early June days in Amer- 
ica. It was just such a day as makes the boys " at 
home " hate books, plan hikes and camps, or wish they 
could go fishing. The breeze that winged over the 
river and softly up through the open windows of our 
veranda, was the kind that tempts girls to wander, 
gathering the wild flowers spring has set to bloom by 
rippling streams. 

The witchery of spring was in the air that morning. 
The lesson was dull. My usually interesting teacher 
seemed unusually stupid. "Come!" said my better-self 
to my indolent-self, " you are not a schoolgirl. This 
man is paid to teach you the Chinese language. You 
must make the best use of his time." 

With rebukes and arguments I urged myself to listen 
more carefully and to fix my attention on the strange- 
looking characters lined up and down the page. 

But the teacher, too, seemed to be thinking of other 
things. More than once, while trying to say a long, hard 
sentence after him, I caught his eyes wandering to the 
other side of the river where the bank looked green. 

" Madam, you know, or not know, today is Tang- 
man's [a favorite term for the Chinese] Feast of the 
Tombs?" 

" Not know," I replied, and went on saying the 
words as if very much interested in the lesson study. 
However, those strange words kept coming back to me. 
"The Feast of Tombs" — what could it mean? I re- 
called the story of the demoniac who lived among the 
18 273 



274 A'Chu and Other Stories 

tombs and cut himself with stones. But would any one 
think of going to the graveyard for a picnic, or what 
the Chinese might call a feast? 

From my seat by the window it was easy to see things 
were not going on in everyday fashion in the street 
below. Fewer men were carrying burdens. More peo- 




STONE ELEPHANT 

One of the Sacred Stone Elephants Which Guard the 
Entrance to the Ming Tombs, Nanking. 

pie wore dress-up clothes. They walked more leisurely, 
and greeted each other more friendly than usual. 

Men and boys carrying spades, rakes, and hoes, mor- 
tar and trowels, were going in the same direction with 
women and girls carrying baskets filled to the brim with 
the eatables the Chinese like best. They seemed to 
move in groups, men and boys leading the way and 
women and girls in bright new clothes following after. 
Gentlemen in long robes of silk walked with coolies in 



The Worship of Ancestors 



275 



blue cotton clothes. Women of wealth and their daugh- 
ters in sedan chairs were followed by family hired serv- 
ants or slave girls carrying baskets. All appeared to 
be going in one general direction toward the green- 
covered hills. 

"Is there a picnic today?" I inquired, in the midst 
of a sentence, then instantly thought, What a foolish ques- 




STONE GUARDS 

On the Way to the Ming Tombs, Nankini 



tion! These Chinese are too hard working to take a 
day off to picnic with their families. Besides, so many 
people of such very different classes would not be going 
to a picnic together. " Where are all these people 
going? " I changed the question before the teacher had 
time to answer. 

" You do not remember I told you today is the Feast 
of Tombs?" he said. 



276 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" Pardon ! I remember ; but what is the Feast of 
Tombs? Are these people going to the burial grounds 
for a feast ? " 

" Partly so," the teacher replied, half closing the book, 
a way he had when it suited him better to talk. 

My teacher was a wise man. Though he himself 
was a Christian, he was very well acquainted with the 
beliefs and customs of his native people. He knew, 
what missionaries should early learn, that it is quite as 
important for us to understand the Chinese way of look- 
ing at things as it is to learn to speak and so be able 
to explain to them the Christian's way of looking at 
things. In other words, we cannot expect them to un- 
derstand us until we have learned to understand them. 

" But," continued the teacher, after a pause, " their 
real object in going to the hills is to hold a feast with 
the spirits of their dead relatives who may be buried 
there. This is the Feast of Tombs, or, because the 
graves lie in the hills, what the common people often 
call ' worshiping the Hills.' " 

My book closed now, also. The evening before I 
had heard a coarse woman living next door to our back 
gate, gibing the chapel boy, " A'Wai, A'Wai, little 
brother 1 ," she called jestingly, " will you or will you not 
worship the hills tomorrow?" 

" I not go," the boy replied emphatically, and dodged 
through the gate, while a group of bystanders roared 
with laughter at his expense. 

"What was the joke on A'Wai?" I asked later, 
when I met the woman alone. 

" Oh, nothing, only he doesn't worship the hills, that 
is all," she replied with a sneer. I related this inci- 
dent to the teacher. 



The Worship of Ancestors 277 

" Yes, the man who becomes a Christian is perse- 
cuted on account of his disregard for ancestor worship 
more than for any other reason," said the teacher. He 
becomes the object of ridicule, and is pointed out as 
' the man who has no ancestors.' To the Chinese this 
is a more stinging insult than to be called a thief or 
a bad man of any other sort. 

" Ancestor worship," he continued, " is the most 
deeply rooted custom of Chinese family and national 
life. No matter whether a man worships the idols or 
not; that does not greatly concern his neighbors. He 
may neglect them, scoff at them, spit on them, — no one 
is seriously offended. But the man who neglects to 
worship his ancestors excites the highest contempt of his 
countrymen. An opium smoker or a gambler may neglect 
his family; but he is a bad case, indeed, who does not 
worship his ancestors." 

I was deeply interested in what my teacher told me 
that morning, as we watched the family groups on their 
way to the hills to worship, as they supposed, the spirits 
of the dead men buried there. Later, I realized that, 
as the teacher had said, ancestor worship is the greatest 
barrier to the progress of the gospel in China. 

The custom of ancestor worship has been handed 
down from the early days of the nation. At first its 
rites and ceremonies were performed merely to show 
honor to parents. At the present time the Chinese are 
noted as a nation for the reverence they show to parents. 
So long as a parent lives, father or mother, his or her 
wishes are respected by all the household, by both mar- 
ried sons and their children alike. 

No aged person may be treated slightingly by any 
respectable Chinese. The aged stranger is spoken to 



The Worship of Ancestors 279 

with courtesy, as, " My aged sire," or " My honored 
mother." A coolie carrying a heavy burden halts in 
the narrow street before the slow steps of an aged 
person, and calls, " Be careful, make way, venerable 
father, for my burden is heavy." The elder person 
returns a good wish, and steps aside to allow the la- 
borer to pass. The most severe punishments to be 
thought of, are inflicted on those guilty of dishonor to 
parents. 

However, in the long course of years the Chinese 
have changed their ideas respecting the object of an- 
cestor worship. They have now come to believe that 
the forefathers who have died possess far greater power 
in the spirit world than when they lived. They also 
believe they are able to use this power so as to bring 
everything that may be desired to those who serve them ; 
or they may choose to bring calamity upon those with 
whom they are displeased. 

Many of the people are very poor. They must bear 
the heavy taxes of unjust rulers and the high rents of 
greedy landlords. One who sees their need cannot won- 
der that they should turn to worship almost anything 
they think can help them out of their pitiful poverty. 

But there is another side to ancestor worship. Spirits 
that are not served and feasted by their children are 
thought to become evil, vicious, spiteful, and revengeful 
toward those who neglect them, in that darker, less 
happy land of spirits. The living are in danger from 
the revenge of evil spirits. Therefore the spirits of the 
dead are served with tokens of love and devotion quite 
as much from fear of the evil they may do to the 
living as for any honor or service of love the living 
may desire to show to their dead ancestors. 



280 A Chu and Other Stories 

The Chinese believe man has three souls: at death 
one spirit goes to the dark world ; a second hovers 
over his grave; the third takes up its abode in the 
ancestral tablet, which is a piece of wood prepared to 
receive it. 

If he is an ordinary person, this token will be placed 
at the side of the altar or before it, in his family home. 
If he is an important person or the leader of his clan, 
the tablet will be set among those of the honorable of 
his ancestors in a building erected for this purpose. 
Such a building is called an Ancestral Hall. Wealthy 
and influential families take great pride in their ances- 
tral halls. Visitors are shown through these places as 
a mark of respect. 

The tablet is spoken of by the name of the person 

whose spirit it represents, as, " This is . He is my 

father's great-grandfather." He is praised for his vir- 
tues, or whatever may have entitled him to a place in 
the family roll of honor. 

The spirit which goes to the dark world is supposed 
to find there much the same conditions he left here. 
He needs there much the same things he required in 
this life.^ But in the spirit-world he is dependent upon 
friends to provide these things for him. No matter 
how powerful he may be to help others, he cannot se- 
cure for himself the things he requires. If he were 
poor here, he may not become rich there. If he were 
lame or blind here, he must bear that infirmity there. 
Was he a bad man on earth, and beheaded for his 
crime? Then he must wander headless in the spirit 
world. His heart may long to speak a word, to hear 
the sound of a human voice. This he may not do, 
for he has lost his head. 




As soon as the old witch at the right finishes her mum- 
mery, the house will be burned, and so pass on for the 
use of the person who bas d'*" 1 .. 




Pouring oil around the paper house so it will burn well. 

PAPER HOUSE FOR THE DEAD 



281 



282 A'Chu and Other Stories 

To provide for the personal needs of the spirit, houses, 
furniture, sedan chairs, boats, clothing, or whatever may 
be required, are made of bamboo and paper. These 
are burned, and in this way are supposed to be sent 
with the spirit to the dark world. 

Sometimes real garments are offered instead of sham 
paper clothes. On one occasion the widow of a mer- 
chant brought out to a shrine under a spreading ban- 
yan tree all the good clothes her husband left at his 
death. A pile of rich silk brocade garments and clothing 
of other materials were all sent up in its sacrificial 
flame to the husband in the spirit world. A quantity 
of gilded red paper was also burned to be used as money 
in the land of darkness. 

The spirit which resides at the grave is worshiped 
once a year in the Feast of Tombs. This feast occurs 
in early spring, corresponding somewhat to our Easter, 
and is one of the most important events of the Chinese 
year. All the men, women, and children able to walk 
the distance, turn out to visit the graves of their dead. 

While the men and boys repair and decorate the 
graves, the women and girls spread a feast for the spirit 
upon the stone slab before it. When everything is ready, 
the fatner stands before the grave and speaks to the 
spirit. He says, " Your children have brought you a 
gift of food." He apologizes that the feast is not 
richer, and explains that because they are so very poor 
this is the best they can possibly afford. He begs that 
it shall not be refused. 

While the spirit is supposed to be enjoying the feast, 
the father goes on to tell all his troubles. He relates 
how sickness, failure of crops, and other misfortunes 
have come to his family in the year since they last vis- 



The Worship of Ancestors 283 

ited this tomb. He begs the spirit, or ancestor, to use 
its great power to bless them with good gifts, prosperity, 
and wealth. 

By the time this ceremony is over the spirit is sup- 
posed to have feasted and been satisfied. Then the 
family sits down in the warm sunshine flooding the 
mounds, and themselves join in the feast. What is left 
belongs to them. The country air has given them splen- 
did appetites, and from the way the boys and girls eat 
one would judge the fruits, cakes, and cold roast meats 
have lost none of their flavor in the spirit's feast. After 
the feast they tell stories, play games, and have a gen- 
eral good time. As the sun settles down in the west, 
the crowds scatter. The worshipers go back to their 
homes in family groups as they came. 

The third spirit, which is believed to reside in the 
tablet at home, is also worshiped at set times, and must 
not be neglected. 

A missionary who rented the house of a Chinese fam- 
ily, was obliged to sign a contract to reserve for the 
old ancestral tablets the room where they were kept. 
The contract also provided that the son should have 
the privilege of coming to the house in person for the 
purpose of paying homage to his parents. The son had 
become wealthy, and had built for himself a fine new 
house, where he now lived. The fact that he had pros- 
pered led him to believe that his ancestors had blessed 
him because they were satisfied with the resting place of 
their spirits. Nothing could induce him to remove their 
tablets from his father's house. The few dollars' rent, 
or even thousands of dollars, would have been as noth- 
ing to the rich young man, in comparison with the 
favor of his dead ancestors. 



284 A'Chu and Other Stories 

But what about those spirits whose families have died 
out, who are without living descendants to carry on the 
ancestral worship? The Chinese have been keen enough 
to provide against danger from this source. A special 
time of feasting has been arranged for these beggar 
spirits. The god set to guard these spirits confined in 
the dark world, is supposed to let them out to roam 
over the earth in the Chinese moon, corresponding to 
our month of August. At this time the whole nation 
unites in providing a feast for desolate souls. 

Feasts of all the good things Chinese love to offer 
their own dead are spread out in the open for the wan- 
derers. Money is also provided, and though boys and 
girls scramble after it and with nimble fingers gather 
up the last copper thrown out for the spirits, yet it is 
imagined that in some mysterious way the spirits have 
absorbed its value for their own use. Thus the beg- 
gar spirits are feasted and made satisfied to return to 
their appointed place. People feast them for fear of 
the calamities they may inflict, Men do not love them, 
only fear their power to do harm. 

Ancestor worship in all its forms is a barrier against 
the gospel of Christ, because it puts men — dead men 
— in the place God has reserved for himself ; as it 
is written, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
and him only shalt thou serve." 



THE FUNG-SHU1 

A MYSTERY OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM 

MEN of the Middle Kingdom have never learned 
to worship God as the creator of all things. 
Because of this they have shown little interest in his 
works. They have taken this world as it is, seeming 
to care little to understand the laws God has set to 
rule it. In this way their minds have been left open 
to foolish and vain thoughts about the things of nature. 

Their imagination has pictured this world as peopled 
with invisible forms — fairies, goblins, ghosts of dead 
men, and all sorts of spirits. But beyond these there 
is another, deeper mystery going through the air and 
filling the earth. In fact, it is at work everywhere, in 
earth, sea, and sky. 

This mysterious power, or influence, is called " fung- 
shui." No one tries to explain what fung-shui is. In- 
deed, the Chinese appear to choose rather to think of it 
as a mystery. Everything they do not understand is 
likely to be attributed to the antics of fung-shui. 

The name consists of two words, — fung, meaning 
"wind;" and shui, meaning "water." But the power 
of fung-shui is by no means confined to wind and 
water. It races through everything in nature. 

According to Chinese belief, fung-shui works through 
spirits to give them power over the affairs of the living. 
This is what they call " luck." When bad luck comes 
to a Chinese, he lays it to a bad fung-shui. If his pigs 
die of cholera, fung-shui is at fault. If his grain does not 
fill out in the ear, it is charged to this mysterious influ- 
ence. Fung-shui unites with peaceable, kindly spirits to 
shower luck upon their favorites. 

285 



286 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



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VIEW OP A STREET IN NANKING 

The traveler climbs to the top of a hill, thinking he 
may get a better view of a Chinese city. He is disap- 
pointed. There is no variety of sights, nothing to be 
seen but an even level of roofs. Dwellings, places of 
business or amusement, temples, or what not, every 
building, excepting perhaps the pawnshop, is of the same 
one-story height, or at most a second low half story is 
added. Everywhere he finds the houses of this same 
low height, and with roofs much alike in design and 
color. 



The Fung-Shui 



287 



" Perhaps," he thinks, " the inhabitants are afraid the 
taller buildings would be blown down by typhoons or 
shaken by earthquakes." 

He has guessed wrongly. They fear, rather, that a 
building of more than usual height will disturb the 
fung-shui. The winds blowing upon it from all quar- 
ters would gather spirits to the spot. This would bring 
disaster. The neighbors would never allow such a 
house to be built if they could help it, and probably 
would destroy the structure if completed against their 




NATIVE STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE 



wishes. A chimney reared on an unlucky part of the 
roof, or a window in the wrong place, might stop the 
neighbor's hens from laying, or prevent the eggs from 
hatching. Some such calamity would be sure to follow 
any disturbance of fung-shui. 

Every town and city has its object for controlling 
fung-shui. This object may be a mound of earth shaped 
like a turtle or a serpent. Better still, it may be a hill 
resembling in form some more powerful animal, as a 
lion or an ox. It may be only the form of the hill 
or the course of a stream that is the omen of good luck 
to its neighborhood. Such an object is supposed to 
gather up the harmful influences, and turn them into 



288 A'Chu and Other Stories 

blessings. Consequently it is regarded as sacred by the 
people. One who should disfigure its surface, either 
intentionally or by accident, would be punished severely. 
Where no such natural object of protection exists, 
something is built to take its place. Many of the tall 
pagodas, which add to the quaint and picturesque beauty 
of Chinese landscape, have been erected for this purpose. 

LUCKY GROUND 

Because fung-shui is supposed to work in connection 
with spirits, the Chinese think the location of their bur- 
ial places is a very important matter. A wealthy family 
will pay a large sum for a plot of ground where the 
fung-shui is said to be powerful. The natural advan- 
tage of its burial place will combine with the spirit to 
work for the prosperity of its living friends. 

There is a class of men who make a business of hunt- 
ing the country over to find such spots, or what are 
called "lucky ground." They often become rich at the 
business. The poor are obliged to bury their dead wher- 
ever they can secure a spot within their means, but the 
wealthy pay any price that may be asked for a grave 
in lucky ground. 

The .visitor to Canton will be shown by his guide 
through the City of the Dead, which lies in the sub- 
urbs. Here are rows of what look like small houses. 
They are open; and as his guide leads the way, he 
enters to find not a living soul within. The first room 
contains an altar with the customary spirit-tablets. Be- 
sides, there may be a seat or two where those who 
come to pay devotion may sit and rest. 

The visitor is invited to enter the second room. This 
he finds occupied by one or more, or even several large, 



The Fung-Shui 289 

heavy burial caskets tightly sealed. Here lie the only 
inhabitants of the City of the Dead. For these the 
city was built. For these it is guarded night and day, 
its streets are kept in perfect order, and its flowers are 
everblooming. Within its gates the air is heavy with 
the odor of perpetually burning incense. 

What does all this mean? Will those thousands of 
dead wait in this quiet place till the great judgment 




TOMBS FOR TEMPORARY INTERMENT WHILE WATTING FOR 
" LUCKY GROUND " 

day? " No," the guide explains with utmost candor, 
" they wait here in the City of the Dead only till 
friends shall secure a spot of lucky ground for their 
final burial." 

In the neighborhood of villages and out in the 
country, coffins may be seen resting under temporary 
cover on the hillside, or without cover and perhaps 
near the family home. These also await a lucky 
day and a lucky spot to be laid to rest in a place 
where the fung-shui is powerful. 
19 



290 A'Chu and Other Stories 

HIGH VALUE OF " LUCKY GROUND " 

An incident that occurred in the experience of our 
own missionaries at Swatow may serve to illustrate the 
importance the Chinese attach to the power of fung- 
shui. When our mission work had become established 
in that region, it was decided to build two houses for 
the missionaries, a girls' school, a school for boys, and 
a dispensary or small hospital. 

Upon careful search a very desirable location was 
found on a small island in Han River. This island 
lies at a point where the stream, having passed the 
hills, widens out in its course through the narrow coast 
plain, and not far inland from where the Han empties 
its waters into the great Pacific Ocean. 

The larger part of this island was owned by an 
aged widow named Lee, together with her seven sons. 
The eldest son was himself some sixty years old. The 
Lee family agreed to sell this possession, reserving only 
a small plot on which a family tomb had been erected. 
As no body yet had been laid in this sepulcher, the 
ground had not become sacred, and the tomb could easily 
have been moved. 

A prjce for two acres was agreed upon. The mis- 
sionaries had sufficient money to buy only one acre. 
This amount they paid down, and received a deed for 
one acre of land, signed by all eight members of the 
family. They felt satisfied that part of the bargain 
was now quite secure. The Lees promised to give 
them time on the other half of the land, and so the 
missionaries eagerly awaited money from America with 
which to pay for the second acre. 

The time for which the owners had agreed to wait 
had nearly expired. The missionaries, thinking it would 



The Fung-Shui 291 

be a pity to lose their chance on this healthful loca- 
tion for their mission homes, went to talk with the 
Lee family, and if possible to persuade them to extend 
the time a little longer. How disappointed they were 
to hear that the owners now refused to sell this land 
at any price! Usually when a Chinese makes a bar- 
gain, he can be depended upon to fulfil it. But these 




A CHINESE DEED 

Each time property is sold, the new deed is pasted to\ 
the former one, in this case making " a stair carpet." I 

men obstinately refused. More than this, they abso- 
lutely denied having sold the acre for which they had 
already received their price. Workmen sent by the 
missionaries to prepare the site for buildings were driven 
off and their cargo boats seized. 

Swatow district was in a state of revolution at the 
time. There was no court of law, no magistrate of 
justice to compel this rich and influential family to 



f 



nJ>\] 



292 A'Chu and Other Stories 

fulfil their bargain. After a great deal of polite talk 
and some haggling over the amount due, the Lees 
finally paid back the money they had received from the 
missionaries. 

" Now what do you suppose was the cause of all this 
fussing? " said the missionary telling the story. " It 
was simply this: After the Lee family had sold us the 
land, they got the idea of building an ancestral hall 
where the tomb then stood, just back of the land sold 
to us along the water's edge. They called a diviner, or 
more properly, a geomancer, who informed them that 
this whole island was a natural fung-shui. To prove 
his point, he drew a chart of the country showing the 
noble hills about Swatow Valley in the attitude of 
doing obeisance to the little island, much as Joseph 
dreamed the sheaves of his eleven brothers bowed be- 
fore his own sheaf. 

" The fung-shui professor marked his chart with char- 
acters of big meaning. He told the Lee family they 
should build an ancestral hall in the grove of green 
trees where the tomb stood. To do this and place in 
it the tablets of their family, would bring great good 
fortune to their clan. But, he warned them, the mis- 
sion must not be allowed to keep the land purchased. 
Their tall buildings, erected between the tomb and the 
bowing hills, would destroy the fung-shui. 

" When we heard this, Ave knew it was useless to 
think of trying to keep the land. They would give 
us no end of trouble. So we took back the money, 
and built our houses elsewhere." 

THE MYSTERY AN EVIL 

Belief in fung-shui is not merely a foolish notion of 
the Chinese, to them it is a real mystery of evil, and is 



The Fung-Shui 



293 



at fault for the present backward condition of civiliza- 
tion in the boasted Middle Kingdom. It is the tap- 
root of a great tree of superstition. The bitter pov- 
erty that makes life a miserable existence to the great 
mass of the Chinese people, is its leaves and fruit. 

China is the oldest nation with a continuous history 
upon the earth today. Her sailing junks carried woven 
silks to the south of Europe while Greece and Rome 




While they trailed their fishing lines, there were fortunes 
in the hills. 

were ruling kingdoms. Her people were thrifty farm- 
ers, prosperous merchants and manufacturers, while the 
British Isles were yet barbarous. Her business was 
carried on by the aid of banks while Europeans still 
swapped goods and the Americans traded with wampum. 
After forty centuries of farming, the soil of China 
has not grown old. The forests abound in excellent 
timber, and the earth is stored with rich mines of 



294 A J Chu and Other Stories 

coal and metals. With a population of 400,000,000 
in a country the size of that part of the United States 
east of the Mississippi River, there can be no lack 
of workers for mines at low wages. The country of 
China is very rich, but the fung-shui keeps her people 
very poor. 

On a trip up West River the captain of our steamer 
called attention to the greenish tint of the rocks on 
the mountains at one side of the narrow river gorge. 

" It looks as if there is copper up there," remarked 
a passenger. 

"Copper! Why, those hills are full of copper," 
returned the captain with some exaggeration. " I have 
run this river twenty years waiting my chance at it. 
I'll wait twenty years more if I have to," he added with 
real Scotch determination. " There's no better chance 
in the world to get rich than up in those hills. See that 
hole?" he pointed eagerly. "That's where a for- 
tune is waiting for me. I own shares in that hole." 

Then the captain told the story of that brown hole 
among the green-tinged rocks. Some years ago a min- 
ing company had been formed with permission from 
the Chinese government to open a mine in this place. 
Valuable machinery was brought from across the ocean, 
and work began. Almost immediately complaint was 
made by the local officials to the government at Peking. 
The digging had disturbed fung-shui, they complained, 
and the awakened spirits were bringing disaster upon 
their farms and villages. 

Word was returned from Peking without delay, or- 
dering the digging to cease. The workmen were com- 
pelled to quit the place at once, leaving their machinery 
where it had been set. 



The Fung-Shui 295 

We looked to see where were the villages in that 
wild region that might have been in danger from this 
disturbance. There were none in sight. For hours 
we had passed no villages, only here and there a hut 
by the water's edge, with a speck of wilted garden 
scratched into the brown soil at its rear. While 
these half-starved " squatters " trailed their fishing lines, 
there were fortunes in the rough mineral nuggets lying 
on the surface of the overhanging hills. This is a fair 
illustration of what has taken place in China whenever 
an attempt at mining has been made. 

China has but few railroads and telegraphs, and here 
again fung-shui is to be blamed. The digging of road- 
beds and the blasting of cuts and tunnels alarm the 
country people. They are distressed by fear of what 
may happen should the fiery-eyed locomotive be allowed 
to go snorting past the peaceful tombs of their ances- 
tors. The Chinese imagine that terrible calamities would 
follow the tall telegraph poles and the long trail of 
wires. 

Such is the power of this mystery of the Middle 
Kingdom against which the new government of China 
has set itself to encourage modern improvements. As 
more railroads are built, and no bad luck but better 
prices for their crops follow, men lose faith in their old 
whims. As more schools are opened and more people 
learn to read, more Bibles can be put into the poor homes 
of China. The love of God will conquer this evil 
mystery, as it conquers all other evils. 



m 



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IDC 




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A FEAST-DAY SCENE 

Seller of sugar cane in 
foreground 



:□: 



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296 



Real Troubles from Wrong 
Imaginations 




CHINESE MOTHER AND CHILD 



// the spirits themselves are only imaginary, 
the troubles they cause the Chinese as the result 
of belief in them are certainly very real. Indeed, 
belief in spirits is the great source of much that 
to us seems heartless and cruel in the conduct of 
the Chinese. The following incidents are related 
to show the effect of this belief in spirits. 



WHERE WAS THE PEARL? 

LITTLE Pearl was nowhere to be seen one morning 
when I called at a certain home. My friend was 
very proud of her little daughter. Usually she was 
brought in to say over the English words she had 
learned, and to go through all her cute pranks. At 
such times she was dressed in fine silk clothes, decked 
with bracelets on her arms and ankles, and other orna- 
ments, some being charms and amulets of bright-yellow 
gold and green jade stone. 

" Where is Pearl this morning? " I inquired. 

" Pearl is not here," replied the mother, with em- 
phasis on the child's name. 

The woman was not inclined to talk, and very soon 
left the room. Through the open archway I saw her 
snuffing the lighted incense that hung in a spiral column 
suspended from the ceiling to just above the table before 
the altar and spread its odor through all the house. 
She did not return to the living-room where she had 
seated me, but busied herself with placing upon the altar 
fresh offerings of fruits, tea and cakes, meats and dain- 
ties. All the time her lips kept moving and sometimes 
her voice was heard pleading to the dumb idol in the 
gilded shrine. 

" No, Pearl is not here. Only A'Hut [meaning " the 
beggar "] is here this morning," explained the husband 
with a movement of his hand toward the corner where 
a child sat in a crumpled heap on a low stool. 

It was little Pearl. No mistake! The household pet, 
the only child left alive to the sad mother of seven chil- 
dren, sat in the corner alone. A torn and soiled cap 
covered her glossy black hair. Her delicate chin just 

299 



300 A'Chu and Other Stories 

peeped above the bundle of old clothes that muffled her 
slender body. The big dark eyes looked out beseech- 
ingly from the shadow. They were the eyes of little 
Pearl, though all the laughter and play had died out 
of them. 

"Beggar!" called the man boisterously. At sight of 
her flushed face his voice softened in spite of his will. 
" Beggar," he repeated very tenderly, " you feel bad, 
don't you? " 

" She is very hot with fever," he said, turning to me 
and mumbling low. " This is the way Chinese women 
do," he explained, though it seemed very plain he was 
making no objection to the mother's way of treating 
the sick child. 

Why should a child be treated so cruelly, you ask? 
In your home she would have been dressed in a clean, 
comfortable garment, and put to rest quietly in bed, 
while mother gave her cooling drinks and constant care 
till the fever was gone. This is the way sick children 
are treated in Christian homes. 

But little Pearl's father and mother were not Chris- 
tians. Their hearts were filled with a dreadful super- 
stitious . fear, stronger than the parent-love for their 
child. They thought the child was sick, not because 
she had eaten too much preserves and sweetmeats or 
roast pork or salt\ fish, but because an evil spirit was 
tormenting her body. Evil spirits would delight to 
torment to death a child loved by its parents and wanted 
in the home, but would not trouble themselves the least 
about an uncared-for, beggar child. So, to deceive the 
spirits, her mother had taken off the good clothes and 
dressed her like a beggar. 



Where Was the Pearl? 301 

So they set her in a corner. No one in all the house 
speaks of the " precious gem," as they called her when 
she was well. Everybody puts on a make-believe way. 
They say, "Where did this beggar come from? Why 
is she here in this house? " just as if they did not own 
her at all, or even know who she was. If one should 




A LITTLE BURDEN BEAKER 



wish to speak a word of pity, it must be done so slyly 
the spirits will not notice it. 

As her part in the game of deceiving the evil ones, 
little Pearl must sit in the corner bundled up to the chin 
in old clothes, with a cap on her hot forehead, while 
her little body is burning with fever and her head swims 
with the dizzying pain. 

The mother suffers, too, for all night long she has 
not slept one little wink. She has been going back and 



302 A'Chu and Other Stories 

forth preparing dainties to feast the gods. She has 
bowed for hours at a time on the cold tile floor before 
the idol, begging it to spare and protect her child. She 
has burned, for an offering to the spirits, red paper cut 
into small pieces and covered with gilt to look like 
money. She has thrown out into the street handfuls 
of copper cash pieces, hoping the spirits will be at- 
tracted by the rattle of the money on the stones. Maybe, 
she thinks, they will be satisfied with the money, and 
take themselves off to have a good time spending it. 

If in the morning her child is better, she will believe 
the idol heard her prayer. Then the ugly image will 
get another feast and plenty of thanks. 

Thousands of children with their mothers, and old 
people too, are suffering this way in China, because they 
do not know the loving Saviour who forgives all our 
iniquities and heals all our diseases. 




FLOT7B MILL AND BICE FIELDS 



THE HAUNTED HOUSE 

A MORE suitable place was needed for our boys' 
school in Amoy. It was hoped that the house 
might be a large one, with space for chapel and study- 
room, and smaller rooms for recitations. There must 
also be quarters for our boarding pupils to live in, as 
well as a home for the missionary, a young man who 
would act as preceptor and have charge of the school. 

Many days had been spent in the search, when a 
house was discovered that in every way was well suited 
to the purpose. The rent asked was surprisingly low. 
The house had been empty a long time, the agent said, 
and the owner had concluded to reduce the price. That 
was singular. Usually we found landlords quick to 
raise the price when a foreign tenant applied for it. 

The students were wiser in Chinese mysteries than 
we. They suspected there was a reason why the house 
had been so long unoccupied. A careful examination of 
the premises was made. Everything appeared to be in 
excellent condition. Indeed, judging from the condition 
of the woodwork and decoration of the walls, the house 
was not an old one, and probably had not been used 
for any length of time. 

The furniture, of the sort usually rented with Chinese 
dwellings, was in disorder, as if the last moving-out had 
been a rather sudden flight. The rooms were littered 
with rubbish buried beneath dust and covered with cob- 
webs. However, we thought this but natural in a house 
vacant for years. It was the agent's refusal to have 
the place " cleaned up " that was most surprising. No 
allowance for labor that was offered tempted him to 
promise he would put the house in readiness. 

303 



The Haunted House 305 

This excited the suspicion of the young men of the 
school, and led them to inquire among the neighbors as 
to the reputation of the place. The neighbors said it 
was a dangerous place, inhabited by demons. They 
meant it was what our forefathers would have called 
a " haunted " house. " The wealthy man who built 
this home lost his wife there, and his children, too. 
Every family that has lived there since that time has 
suffered. Lots of folks have died there. Now people 
are afraid because everybody knows it is a spirit-house." 
Thus spoke the neighbors. 

The students had learned better things. They be- 
lieved in Jesus, and were no longer afraid of haunted 
houses. Under the direction of their preceptor, the older 
students set to house-cleaning. The rubbish was burned, 
and the cobwebs with it. The woodwork was cleaned 
and the walls whitewashed. Upstairs the board floors 
were given such a thorough treatment with soap and 
water as to make them turn pale. When the down- 
stairs floors, in like manner, were scoured clean of sev- 
eral coats of drab, they turned up a cheerful surface of 
terra cotta tiles, each square outlined in white cement. 

The court, or open space between the two parts of 
the house, was flooded with water and swept to a finish. 
The blue sky looked down into the court approvingly. 
The sunshine seemed to say, You have made it clean; 
I will keep it pure. It streamed over the whitened 
walls, and danced on the broad leaves of the green 
palms. The delicate blossoms of flowering plants, 
brought from the gardener's, lent their tints to brighten 
the spot. 

The preparations were completed. Soap and water, 
paint and lime, well applied, had worked a wonderful 
20 



306 A'Chu and Other Stories 

change. The rejected dwelling had become a fit habi- 
tation. School was announced to begin at once. 

Then the preceptor was taken ill. He suffered severe 
pain in the head and back. His temperature ran 
higher. His mind wandered. The doctor examined 




OUR FIRST HAKKA STUDENTS 

These are the boys who cleaned up the " haunted " house. 

him carefully — a tiny red speck on the forehead — 
another — two others — more on the chest. Next day 
he knew certainly that it was smallpox. 

Soon afterward the student who had assisted in clear- 
ing away rubbish from the lady's chamber was taken 



The Haunted House 



307 



ill. After him still another student came down with 
smallpox. 

Now we knew what it was that haunted the big house. 
It was not the evil spirits to which the Chinese had 
charged the misfortunes of its unhappy dwellers. It 
was rather the minute germs of a terrible disease, se- 
creted in the dust and clinging to cobwebs, that had 
worked the mischief. Quite certainly, after the treat- 
ment it had undergone, the house would be haunted no 
more. The missionary got well, and so also did his 
students. But he will always bear some of the pitted 
scars received in this encounter with enemies in a 
haunted house. 




NATIVE EVANGELISTS 




THE TROUBLE THAT CAME TO THE 
CARPENTER'S WIFE 

YOU may have heard that Chinese 
mothers sometimes throw away their little 
children. You have doubtless thought 
them very cruel and selfish, as I once 
did, till I understood why the carpen- 
ter's wife threw away her baby. 

The carpenter's wife was a bright- 
faced, smiling woman, who seemed never 
to have had a trouble in her life. The 
first child was like his mother, good-natured and cheerful. 
No one heard the carpenter's baby cry. 

One day a servant called with a present — bright- 
colored eggs, preserved ginger-root, and what not, in a 
basket. That was their way of sending the good news 
that another baby boy had come to the carpenter's home. 
A week passed before I had time to call on our 
neighbor. I met the carpenter's wife walking about 
the workshop with the new baby in her arms. But 
there was a worry in her face I had never seen there 
before. 

The new baby was a fine-looking fellow, plump and 
strong as the average child of a month old. It was 
easy to find nice things to say to the mother about such 
a boy. She made no reply to the compliments till, as 
I was leaving, she followed me to the door. 

" He is no good," she said, " I will give him to you 
if you will have him." 

I did not think she meant it seriously; for it was 
common pleasantry among the neighbor women to make 
believe to give their children to the foreigner, as well 
308 



The Carpenter s Wife's Trouble 309 

as a great bugaboo to frighten the little folks into being 
good. 

" Truly," she insisted, " take him ; I do not want 
him. He will not eat." 

Then I discovered something I had not seen before. 
The carpenter's baby had lockjaw. The untaught coolie 
woman who dressed the newborn baby the first time 
had used an ugly black plaster instead of clean, soft cot- 
ton to bind up the little body. Baby's blood had been 
poisoned. He would never open his mouth again, not 
even to cry. Inside, the lips were white and blistered, 
and not a drop of cool water could pass between the 
rigid jaws. The doctor said nothing could be done to 
help make him well. There was nothing to do but to 
ease his suffering by keeping him as warm and com- 
fortable as possible. 

That night, when the family and all the neighbors 
were asleep, the carpenter's wife took off the warm, 
soft clothes we had given her baby, wrapped him in 
coarse sackcloth, and put him out in an old, deserted 
shed. She intended to leave him there. But in the 
morning I sent a messenger to bring the child for a 
warm bath. 

Poor little thing! His face was blotched and swollen 
from mosquito bites, and he was so hoarse he could 
scarcely moan. 

"Why did you do it? How could you treat your 
own little child so cruelly? " I chided, not knowing how 
the poor mother suffered with fear. 

"Ah, do not blame me! Have I not another child 
in my home?" she pleaded. 

She thought the demons, attracted by the sick child, 
might seize upon the well one also. The fear of danger 



310 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



to the older child had driven her to cast away this sick 
baby. 

"But why did you not bring him to me? I would 
willingly have cared for your sick baby," I insisted. 

"Ah, you, Madam?" She looked surprised. "You 
have two small children of your own. How dare I 
bring my tormented one to you?" 

Then I understood. Fear, the terribly dark fear that 
beats down the mother-love, caused the carpenter's wife 
to throw away the sick child in order that the well one 
might be safe. Her generous heart would not impose 
on another family the danger from which she sought to 
protect her own. In such cases as this the missionary 
is comforted by the recollection that Jesus came to this 
world to " deliver them who through fear of death were 
all their lifetime subject to bondage." 




HOMES IN CHANGSHA 



The Influence of the Gospel 




© U. & U., N. Y. 



NATIVE BIBLE WOMAN, CANTON 



312 



THE SIGN OVER THE DOOR 

OUT in the country, two or three miles from San- 
li-tien, we came across a farmhouse having this 
inscription in large Chinese characters over the entrance, 
" May the great truth come to this door." 

It is quite common for these people to express their 
wishes for the New Year in sayings over the doors of 
their dwellings. Such expressions as, " May riches enter 
here;" "May peace reign within;" "May the five 
blessings — long life, riches including sons, a sound 
body, love of virtue, and a peaceful end — enter this 
door," are not far to see, but to find a desire for truth 
expressed on the gateway of a peasant home was far 
from usual, and attracted us. We decided to enter. 

This house was much like the other dwellings of the 
plain. The walls were constructed of sun-dried brick 
laid in mud for mortar and sheltered by thatches of 
rice straw over bamboo rafters. Inside were all the 
necessities of a simple country life, in spite of the 
absence of any floor except the bare earth. As usual 
in such homes, no flue had been provided for the big 
brick stove where the two daily meals were cooked over 
a fire of twisted straw, dry grass, or stalks. The 
interior walls and roof were brown with smoke, but 
an atmosphere of neatness and thrift prevailed, not 
always found in these homes, while the blue cotton 
garments and white cloth stockings of the inmates were 
clean beyond what might have been expected. And yet, 
if one may judge from that mute, appealing witness 
over the door, temporal, bodily comforts were not the 
chief concern of the occupants. At least, these were 
not the things of chief importance to the wife, for it 

313 



314 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



was she, we afterward learned, who had placed upon 
the arch of her portal at the dawning of the New 
Year the sincerest wish of her heart — " May the 
great truth come to this door." 

At our first visit the woman related to my companion 
the experience which had led her to long to know the 
truth. Her husband, she said, was a very good man. 
Though she had never borne him a child, yet he had 
not taken another wife, nor allowed this disappointment 
to make him cruel or unkind to her. 
However, being childless, she felt 
she really had nothing to live for, 
and often wished to die. 

Sometime during the late summer 
a single book of the Scriptures had 
fallen into her husband's hands. He 
carried it home, and during his 
leisure evenings read from it aloud, 
as the Chinese love to read. All 
the time she sat near. She kept 
the tiny lamp full of oil. She 
snuffed the pith wick, and carefully lifted its tip above 
the oil, that it might burn its brightest. Very quietly 
she listened while her husband read on, and with true 
Chinese propriety said not a word when the reading 
ceased. 

In this way she caught a suggestion of a new and 
better life, but how to follow the ray that had shone 
into her heart, baffled her. How, from where, through 
whom, might this everlasting life be obtained? She 
could not read, and though a kind man, her husband 
did not think it worth while to grant her earnest request 
to hear all the book said. 




A COLPORTEUR 



The Sign Over the Door 



315 



Moreover, what she did hear sounded so strange to 
her ears, so different from anything she had ever heard 
before, that she could scarcely persuade herself that she 
had heard aright. Most earnestly she desired to know 







'III- • 






A SEEKEE FOE TEUTH 



this heavenly doctrine of the true way, as she called 
the Scriptures, but there was no one to teach her. With 
childlike simplicity she committed this yearning of her 
heart to the archway over her door. 



316 A'Chu and Other Stories 

No one who was present to see how eagerly she 
pressed to the missionary's side, gazing rapturously 
into her teacher's face, could for a moment have doubted 
her sincerity. As she listened to the words of Jesus, her 
expressive countenance became radiant with the light 
kindling in her soul. When the reading was finished 
and our missionary gave her a whole New Testament 
to be her very own, she stroked the book tenderly and 
folded it reverently to her heart. 

Long ago her husband and she had ceased to worship 
idols, for they realized these were useless, more helpless 
than themselves. Looking out into the world of living, 
growing things about them, they became convinced that 
there must be some Great One over all, the source of 
life to all. Knowing no better way, they sent out their 
prayers to earth, sea, and sky. Out into the great 
universe of which they knew so little, had gone their 
petitions, lo, those many years, in search of the great 
God whom they knew not at all. For years she had 
been feeling after God. Now, past the noontime of 
her life, she had found him, and for the first time 
bowed reverently before the true God, the Creator of 
earth, %ea, and sky. 

Later we came again. At this second visit a number 
of women from the surrounding hamlets and neigh- 
boring villages came in, attired in their gayest holiday 
clothes and chattering like a flock of blackbirds. They 
were interested in our speech, our clothing, the color 
of our hair, our complexion, in everything but our 
teaching. The hostess remonstrated, begging them to 
sit down and listen to the " Good Book." 

" Oh, we do not understand her words," they re- 
plied. 



The Sign Over the Door 317 

" But if you really desire to know, you may under- 
stand," she urged. " Your hearts will be opened to 
hear. I now understand all that she speaks." However, 
as the interruption continued, we decided to go on to 
the next village. She understood the situation. 

" Please stop when you come back," she whispered 
to the missionary. " They will have gone to the dragon 
shows or to the theaters in the city, and we can be 
quite alone then." 

Our work at the farther village was completed, and 
we were soon on the way home again. Out in the 
distance, across the fields, the woman was standing by 
the winding path, waiting for our return. 

" Madam, they have gone, altogether gone! Now 
you will tell me more about this Saviour? My heart 
is so happy when I hear that he came to save one so 
unworthy as I," she said eagerly. 

As the wheelbarrow carrying our three children came 
to a halt before her door, she called a friend with whom 
she had been sharing her good news. The two women 
joyously led us by the hand into the house. We were 
given the chief seats, and offered the customary refresh- 
ments of knickknacks and tea. Then they placed their 
bamboo stools one at the side and the other directly in 
front of the teacher, and were ready to begin. 

When the reading was over, we all bowed together. 
Never did the promise, " There am I in the midst," 
seem more literally fulfilled than as we knelt on that 
beaten earth floor with the smoky rafters overhead. The 
" Great Truth " himself had indeed come to that door. 



DELIVERANCE OF KEH CHENG SOAN 
AND HIS SON 

KEH CHENG SOAN, the father of Pastor Keh 
Nga Pit, heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, the 
Saviour of all men, from the early Scotch mission- 
aries in the Fukien Province in the southeast of China. 
He heard the " blessed voice," as our word " gospel " 
is translated into Chinese, believed it, and openly pro- 
fessed himself a follower of Jesus. 

At that time, more than a half century ago, Chris- 
tian believers were few, and opposition to the gospel 
was very bitter. It took all the courage of a heart 
brave as Keh Cheng Soan's to say to the people of his 
village, most of whom were family relatives, " I am a 
Christian. I no longer burn incense to the idols nor 
worship the ancestors. From this time I will worship 
only the God who made heaven and earth." 

Most certainly the old men of the village looked 
upon him as a " smart one," an upstart indeed, who 
dared believe he had found a better religion than 
the worship of the gods which their forefathers had 
served for generations. 

To *be sure, there had been times when these same 
old villagers themselves had lost patience with the 
gods, but that, as they thought, did not prove them 
altogether useless and bad. These were times when the 
growing crops needed rain which the heavens did not 
send. Without rain there could be no crop, and with- 
out a crop there must be famine, suffering, and death 
among the inhabitants of the district. 

At such times the old men acting as fathers of 
the village had declared a holiday. Everybody went 
318 



Deliverance of Keh and His Son 



319 



to the shrines and temples to plead for rain. They 
feasted the gods, and when they were supposed to be 
full of good things, prayed for rain upon their parched 
land, that the worshipers, too, might eat and be satisfied. 
When rain did not come, they became disgusted 
with gods so careless of their needs. They then 




LEJ<T OUT 1JN THE SUN 



took measures to convince the idols of the intensity of 
the heat and severity of the drouth. The principal 
rain god was carried out into an open space and 
set in the sun without food or drink, sometimes for 
days, till he should feel what it is to be hungry and 
thirsty and scorched with heat. 



320 A'Chu mid Other Stories 

I once knew of a village where the people, on oc- 
casion of a prolonged drouth, left their god in the 
sun without food or drink for three weeks, till the head 
of the wooden idol cracked with the heat. He was 
insulted with jeering and spitting, showered with fire- 
crackers and rockets, and serenaded with metal gongs 
to keep him awake till he could suffer it no longer, 
and would answer the people's prayers for rain. 

But punishment of careless gods was a very dif- 
ferent thing to them from forsaking their worship 
altogether. The idea that Keh Cheng Soan pro- 
fessed that he had found a better God or a more 
effectual worship, was beyond the best thinking of the 
very oldest men. They pronounced him a vain-headed 
upstart, deceived by the doctrines of the " foreign 
devils." 

The younger men of his own age thought him 
crazy, while the women of the village were filled 
with terror that a home in their very midst had 
ceased to worship the idols. There was no telling, 
they whispered one to another in great alarm, what 
disaster of storm or pestilence of disease might come 
upon . them from the anger of the offended gods. 
To avert such disaster these women applied them- 
selves the more zealously to their heathen worship. 

All this talk about one Jesus Christ, who saves 
from sin — what could it mean ? Was not sin — the 
sin of a man like their clansman Cheng Soan, who 
had neither murdered, nor stolen, nor cheated the 
poor — only the neglect to worship the spirits of his 
dead forefathers with becoming devotion? Why should 
he be so afraid of his sins? Had he not always been 
foremost among the worshipers? What, then, did 



Deliverance of Keh and His Son 321 

he mean by saying that now the blood of Christ had 
taken away his sins? 

After this manner the heathen reasoned over the 
new faith of their clansman Cheng Soan. 

The fiercest struggle of all came when it was told 
about that Keh Cheng Soan and his wife had renounced 
the worship of ancestors altogether. We would think 
the man who left his old father and mother without 
food and clothing to follow the strange teacher of a 
new doctrine, a very ungrateful, unloving son. 

The Chinese suppose that after death the spirits 
of their ancestors are in the same need of these 
things, and as dependent for happiness upon the love 
and care of their children, as they were while yet 
alive. Beyond that, they are more dependent upon 
them than are the living, who may beg, while those 
in the spirit world are utterly unable to get things 
for themselves by any means. It may readily be seen 
that the man who deserts ancestor worship is re- 
garded by his fellow countn T men as ungrateful, un- 
dutiful, an altogether worthless, and even a dangerous 
fellow. 

The wisest of old women predicted that in pun- 
ishment for setting aside the sacred customs of China, 
and especially for deserting the ancestors, Keh Cheng 
Soan's posterity would be cut off. They meant that 
no more sons or daughters would ever be born to his 
family. 

In spite of persecution, through falsehood and ill 
report, the new Christian convert continued a stead- 
fast follower of Christ. He went to a mission .school 
to study the Scriptures, and finally became a preacher 
of the gospel. 
21 



322 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



The sayings of the old women failed completely, 
for a son was born into their home, and afterward 
a bright-eyed baby girl came to gladden the mother's 
heart. In reading the words of Jesus Christ, Keh 
and his wife had learned that all souls are equally 




KEH NGA PIT AND HIS FAMILY 

This man is the boy in the story. 



precious in his sight. Sons and daughters, alike, are 
gifts of hi3 love. 

Keh Cheng Soan was sent by the missionaries to the 
village of Liong Bun, in the district of Chin Po. These 
names are not to be found on the map in our school 
geographies, but this place is not far inland from the 
great seacoast city of Amoy, in the province of Fukien. 



Deliverance of Keh and His Son 323 

There a little company of believers had taken their 
stand to follow Christ, and the young evangelist was 
appointed their leader. 

At Liong Bun another son was born. There were 
almost no doctors or trained nurses in those days 
to aid the mothers of China. Alone, with only an 
untaught coolie woman for help, the wife of Keh 
passed her days of suffering. When at last the old 
woman announced, " A son is born," the mother 
quietly thanked God. In rejoicing over their child 
the parents did not wish to forget God's help in 
trouble. They called his name Nga Pit (or Jabez), 
" Because I bear him with sorrow," the mother said. 
1 Chron. 4 : 9. Both father and mother dearly loved 
this child, perhaps even more than the brother and 
sister older than he. 

In the year 1873, when Tsu Eng, as Nga Pit's 
household name was called, was eight years old, the 
people of the Chin Po district rebelled against the 
government of China. There was nothing strange 
about such an uprising, for the people of China were 
very much dissatisfied with its rulers. Rebellions from 
one cause or another were frequent in all parts of the 
empire. The ruling royal family of the time were 
the Manchus, a foreign race who sorely oppressed the 
native people. In rebellion against, and hatred for, 
their foreign rulers, the Chinese had unfortunately come 
to distrust all foreigners. Even the missionaries were 
suspected of evil intentions, and their Chinese fol- 
lowers were looked upon with suspicion. 

Keh's village, Liong Bun, joined with a near-by 
village of Sio Si, in revolt, and together they hoisted 
a rebel flag at Tao Bo (Big Hat) Mountain as a 



Deliverance of Keh and His So/i 325 

signal to the country to join them. The people of 
both villages and the country around became greatly 
excited. Now that the fighting spirit was up, the 
rebel leaders decided to make a clean sweep of the 
foreigners and their followers, beginning with the zeal- 
ous preacher of the Christian chapel at Liong Bun. 

On the twelfth day of the Chinese ninth month, 
forty-nine strong men, armed with knives and fire- 
arms, entered the village as the sun was setting. 
Keh Cheng Soan stood by the door of his house 
when three strange-looking men passed that way. He 
greeted them politely, and they paused beside his 
door. As they were talking together, one of the men 
took up the boy Tsu Eng rather roughly in his arms. 

" I beg you, do not tease the lad," said the father 
Keh. " These few days he has not been well, and 
only today has begun to get better." 

These words had scarcely passed his lips when 
the whole armed band dashed into sight. Seizing both 
father and child, they hurried to get away. 

Mrs. Keh was inside, preparing the evening meal, 
when the scuffle of feet and the loud tones of strange 
voices drew her to the door in time to see the angry 
mob seize her husband and child. At the risk of her 
own life she dashed into their midst to rescue her child, 
but the men threatened her with their swords and drove 
her back into the house. In the tumult of rebellion 
there was not a soul to hear her cry, so the helpless 
woman gathered her remaining children with her into 
the house to pray. 

That evening Evangelist Keh Cheng Soan and his 
eight-year-old son, Tsu Eng, were taken to the 
neighboring village, where they were locked in a dark 



326 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



room alone for the night. Next morning the cap- 
tives were told that a great army was to be raised, 
and when all the towns and cities of the surround- 
ing country had surrendered to the rebels, they would 
celebrate their victory by sacrificing the Christian 




STREET TN A CHINESE VTTXAGE 



preacher and his son on the mountain top before 
their flag. This threat was repeated over and over to 
the victims for three days in succession. 

Shut up in the dark room, with no way of es- 
cape, the captives were not alone. In telling this 
incident, which he still well remembers, Pastor Keh 
Nga Pit said, " My father prayed day and night, 



Deliverance of Keh and His So?i 327 

beseeching God to open the way before us, to hear 
our prayers and deliver us from our enemies. He 
often spoke to me, ' Son, fear not. Our heavenly 
Father is able to save us. Only believe, and do 
not doubt his promises.' " 

On the evening of the third day, being the fifteenth 
day of the Chinese month, the moon came up beau- 
tiful and bright. The rebels were in high spirits, and 
all the inhabitants of the village, both grown people 
and children, came out into the moonlight, and gave 
themselves up to merrymaking, with wild dancing and 
playing. 

In the midst of their gayeties, suddenly a strange 
dark shadow began to creep across the moon. " An 
evil omen! " hoarsely whispered the old men. They 
had planned a great war of rebellion that would 
throw the yoke of foreign rule from off the neck 
of the Chinese people and exalt their native village 
to be the very capital of the empire. Now, lo, at the 
very beginning, the Lord of heaven and earth showed 
his displeasure with them by darkening the moon. 

An order was given to bring the drums at once. 
All the gongs to be found in the village and all the 
drums that could be mustered were brought and 
beaten violently to save the moon. But the dark 
shadow crept silently on. The people were terrified 
at the sight, and in the darkness groped their way back 
to their homes. They were filled with fear of a ter- 
rible punishment to be visited upon their wrong-doings. 

However, the eclipse passed over before midnight. 
Then the people cooked the small lunch customarily 
served at night on such occasions, and refreshed them- 
selves. 



328 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



Up to this time the rebels had been very cruel 
to their Christian captives. " Formerly they threat- 
ened to kill us," said Pastor Keh; "now they were 
changed, and begged us to eat with them the lunch 
they had prepared. Afterward they urgently besought 
my father to leave their village, and return to his 
home. On the seventeenth day, five days after our 
capture, they hired a comfortable sedan chair, and 
carried us home with a large escort of people." 

In closing the recital of this incident, he said, 
" This is an experience I myself passed through when 
only eight years of age. Does not this plainly show 
that the true God hears and answers the prayers of 
his people? " 




HOW A KIDNAPPED BOY WAS FOUND 



WHEN Evangelist Tan Khi was a young man liv- 
ing in the city Chin Chiu, one of his sons was 
kidnapped and carried to a large city on the seacoast, 
where he was sold into the home of a very wicked 
woman. While far away among strangers, the boy 
remained true to what he had been taught. His con- 
duct showed him to be a Christian child, and was at last 
the means of his being returned to his father's house. 
This boy's name was Su Lai, which means " a gift 
come." The parents were Christians, and believed their 
children were God's gift to them. For this reason the 
child was named " Gift Come," to 
help them remember their duty to 
train him up to fear the Lord. 

The village homes of China, as a 
rule, are small, dark, and damp. 
There are very seldom any fires for 
heating the rooms, and no glass 
windows to let in the sunshine. 
When the weather is chilly, the in- 
mates go outside to get warm. 
Sometimes the children are tethered 
out with a strong cord fastened to 

the doorway at one end and tied around a wee ankle at 
the other end. The very tiny one may be locked in a 
rude gocart on wobbly wheels. He kicks and crows as if 
he were taking part in the play; and though his gocart 
never gets him anywhere, the sunshine and exercise keep 
him warm and contented. 

One day Su Lai was allowed to go to the vegetable 
market with his sister. He was now four years old, 
22 329 




330 A'Chu and Other Stories 

and on this occasion was left free to run about without 
a rope. He was not likely to wander far, and in a 
village like theirs everybody knew everybody else, and 
his children, too. No venturesome " sprout," as their 
name for " son " really means, of the family tree would 
get far away before some interested neighbor would spy 
him and bring him home again. 

That afternoon when " Gift Come " went to the mar- 
ket, he was left to look around while his sister was busy 
buying things for supper. She did not notice how rap- 
idly the time passed, nor that the child was gone, till 
she was ready to go home. The market was only a 
short way from home. In a few minutes the father and 
mother knew their child was missing. They ran out 
quickly, one this way and the other that, to inquire 
among their friends and neighbors, but no one had 
seen their child. 

There were no police and no detectives to aid in the 
search. According to Chinese custom when a child is 
lost, the parents took drums and went throughout the 
village beating the drums and calling loudly the name 
of the lost child. In a very short time the word was 
passed* from house to house, " Tan Khi's son Su Lai 
is lost." But no one had seen the missing child. 
Mothers looked scared. They drew their own little ones 
close into their houses, and fears were whispered from 
door to door. 

Friends joined the parents, and every corner of the 
village, even out to the country about, was scoured in 
search of their child. But night came on and Su Lai 
was not found. 

The parents were quite certain now that the child 
had been stolen. They were stricken with grief at the 



A Kidnapped Boy 331 

thought, but determined not to give up the search. They 
prayed continually that God would bring him back to 
them. Large handbills describing the child and im- 
ploring aid in finding him were posted in all the 
public places. 

Thirty days, with their long, sleepless nights, passed 
by, and no trace of the child was discovered. Then the 
father thought of writing a few lines to the church pa- 
per, asking all Christians to aid in searching for his son. 

It happened that this church paper was published in 
the very same city on the seacoast to which the child, 
" Gift Come," had been brought and sold. A number 
of Christians who read the paper lived in the city. It 
happened, also, that one of these Christians lived next 
door to the woman who had bought the child. Many 
children come and go in a large Chinese house, and 
perhaps the Christian woman never would have noticed 
the. little stranger in a great city, but that her neighbor 
called one day, bringing the child with her. His actions 
had puzzled her completely. 

" Madam," she said to the Christian woman, " will 
you please take notice? Is not this child I lately bought 
a worship-God man? It is surprising to see the way he 
acts. When he gets up in the morning, he kneels to 
pray. We call him to eat rice, and place the food ready 
before him, but he stops first to pray. We leave him 
wait till he becomes very hungry, still he prays before 
he eats. Before going to bed at night he sings and 
prays. We are not able to turn him from his strange 
way of doing. Is he not a follower of your Christian 
doctrine? " 

At this moment there flashed into the woman's mind 
a recollection of what she had read. Sorrowing parents 



332 A'Chu and Other Stories 

had asked all Christians to help search for their lost son. 
Without betraying her real purpose, she asked many 
questions about the child, and carefully took notice to 
see if it answered to the description given in the church 
paper. She believed this was the lost son, and immedi- 
ately sent a letter to the father, asking him to come and 
see the child. 

Evangelist Tan Khi at once took passage on a small 
boat down the coast to the great city, taking with him 
the sister from whose care the child had been snatched 
away. He soon found the home of the Christian family, 
and from the woman's description was convinced that 
her neighbor's adopted son was his own lost child. 

A plot was laid by which he hoped to get into the 
house to see for himself. Dressed as a countryman, he 
led his little daughter from house to house, inquiring 
for some one willing to buy her. Of course he must 
have made one excuse and another why he could not 
accept the offers made for her. Finally he arrived at 
the big house. Here he appeared very anxious to sell 
the girl, and begged to be allowed to show her to the 
madam. While the father of " Gift Come " bantered 
with the woman, the sister kept her bright eyes keen, 
searching for the brother. Before they left the house, 
both were certain Su Lai was there. 

However, the way was not yet clear for the father to 
get his boy back again. This family were heathen people, 
and besides, were well known to be cruel and wicked. 
They had paid their money for the boy, and were not 
the kind to care much where he came from, if only he 
might be taught to follow their ways. No telling what 
might happen if they should find out the rightful father 
was next door, waiting to claim his child. The father 



A Kidnapped Boy 333 

could not go to the officers of the city and ask for help 
to get his child back again. This would require a large 
sum of money, more than he could possibly pay. 

The father was in great distress. He now knew the 
very house where his son was confined, but seemed help- 
less to do anything to secure his return. In fact, he 
felt sure it was beyond the power of man to accomplish. 
He prayed with all his heart that God would in some 
way release his child, and give him back to the parents' 
loving care. 

Ten days passed while he waited, praying, and then 
the answer came. Some of the Christians in that city 
knew a certain Chinese officer whom they believed to 
be very just and kind-hearted. One of these Christians 
spoke to this mandarin of the heartbroken father who 
had come a long way to find his son, but could not get 
him back. The mandarin immediately called out a band 
of armed soldiers, and sent them with orders to fetch 
the child and return him to his own father. 

This son has since grown to manhood in his father's 
home. He attended our mission school, and is now 
preaching the gospel to his own people, as his father 
before him did. 

Because Su Lai was taught to love the Lord and was 
faithful in prayer and worship before a heathen family, 
he came to be known as a " worship-God man." This 
was the sign by which he was discovered and brought 
back to his father's house. 




CHAN SIT YIN, ANOTHER BIBLE STUDENT 



334 



WANG'S CHOICE 

WANG is the son of a merchant in a walled city 
of China, Kaifeng Fu, capital of Honan Province. 
Being the eldest son, according to Chinese custom, he 
would be expected to succeed his father, not only as 
head of the family, but also in the business which pro- 
vides the family support. In order that he might be 
prepared for this position, the father took particular 
pains to acquaint his son with all the details of his 
business affairs. Accordingly, when Wang was about 
fifteen years old, he accompanied his father on an un- 
usually long and important business trip. 

At that time the city of Sin-yang-chow marked the 
northern terminus of the new railway running from 
Hankow, the greatest city of central China, north toward 
Peking, the imperial capital of the empire. Leaving the 
railway at this point, father and son were delayed, 
waiting means of conveyance on their journey toward 
home. 

Here they met Evangelist Lai and heard him tell 
how the Lord had found him, a proud Confucianist, ■ — 
a Pharisee, — and had changed his heart and made him 
a disciple of the humble Jesus of Nazareth. Neither 
Wang nor his father had ever heard of such an experi- 
ence before. They were interested, and resolved to 
become better acquainted with this new doctrine. By 
inquiry they found the way across the river to our 
mission at San-li-tien. There they took up their wait 
in a small native inn near the mission. 

They spent their days reading from the Bible they 
had purchased, and every evening found them attentive 
listeners at the mission chapel. Some two weeks had 

335 



336 A'Chu and Other Stories 

passed in this way when the pair went away as quietly 
as they had come. 

On reaching home, the father's time and thoughts 
were fully occupied with business. The good seed sown 
in his heart seemed to have fallen among thorns. It 
was choked with the cares and riches of this life. For 
the time, at least, he put away thoughts of the heavenly 
doctrine, as they called the Scriptures, and gradually fell 
back into his old practices of heathen worship. 

Not so with little Wang. His young heart was free 
from the responsibilities and cares of business, and there- 
fore was more open to the influence of the Holy Spirit. 
He protested against the vain worship of idols in their 
home. He pleaded that, instead, they ought to believe 
on the true Saviour, and prepare to meet him at his 
coming. 

Seeing that his father remained indifferent, the boy 
openly confessed to him that he had no desire to succeed 
him in business as a merchant. He begged to be allowed 
to choose for himself, for he very earnestly desired to 
be a Christian and to become a worker for Jesus Christ. 

God must have touched the strong man's heart, for 
strangely enough, the father listened kindly, and granted 
the boy's request. Only one condition, he said, would 
he impose upon his son. If the boy left home, he must 
go directly to the mission, join himself to the foreign 
teachers, and be obedient to the Scriptures with all his 
heart. 

Wang gladly accepted this condition, and prepared 
at once to follow his choice. He was clothed in a new 
suit of blue cotton homespun over the warmly padded 
winter garments. His feet were protected by straw san- 
dals over white cotton cloth stockings. A string of cash 



Wang's Choice 337 

pieces, slung over his shoulder, was intended to meet 
his expenses on the way. With a blanket for a bed 
and another pair of cotton sox and straw sandals rolled 
in a bundle on his back, he made his way through the 
gates of his native city out across the great plains. 

It was a long journey — some two hundred miles from 
Kaifeng Fu back to the humble village of San-li-tien. 
Like Jacob, he traveled on foot, across country, and 
without a companion. But on his arrival at the mission 
Wang testified that he had not been lonely nor afraid, 
for as he pursued his journey by narrow, crooked paths 
through the fields and around the vegetable gardens of 
China's great central plain, heavenly angels guarded his 
way, and the Spirit told him in his heart that his choice 
pleased God. 

No one at the mission had asked the boy to come 
back, nor had any promise of a home, or even of help 
in earning a living, been made to him. When Evan- 
gelist Lai asked why he had returned and how he ex- 
pected to get a living, Wang replied that he had come 
back to study the Scriptures and to become a follower 
of Jesus. As to food and clothes, he had read the 
words of the Lord, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, 
and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added 
unto you." 

Wang had been at the mission some two months when 
I visited the place. He was always cheerful and ready 
to do his part, which, as he was the youngest of the 
group of native students in the Bible class, was often the 
performance of the most menial tasks about the place. 
He was called to run errands, to sweep the bare dirt 
floors, to buy the vegetables and prepare them, to cook 
the rice over an open fire in a small cookhouse without 



338 A'Chu and Other Stories 

a smoke chimney, and to do many other duties performed 
by the servants in his father's house. Through it all 
he remained steadfast in his choice. By diligence and 
attention to duty, polite manners, and courteous bearing, 
he won his way among the older men at the station. 
They came to speak of him as Little Wang, and as 
tenderly as Jacob might have spoken of Benjamin. 

On the last Sabbath of our visit, all the mission family 
gathered at the riverside to see six native believers in 
Christ baptized. Little Wang stood there, the rear one 
of the group, his short, stout figure quite in contrast to 
the tall, dignified form of the evangelist and the tall, 
angular figure of Mr. Ho. The snug black-satin cap 
was pulled well down over his clean-shaven head, from 
under it the queue fell down his back, a heavy, long, 
glossy black braid. His chubby hands were drawn up 
under' the protecting folds of the cotton-padded sleeves. 

When his turn came, Wang stepped out into the clear 
stream. Clasping his hands over his breast, he turned 
his round face toward the blue heavens, while big tears 
of joy and gratitude rolled down over his ruddy cheeks. 

The last I heard of Little Wang he was still pur- 
suing Jthe fixed choice which led him to forsake his 
father's house in order that he might serve God. He 
had grown to manhood, and was foreman of a depart- 
ment in our publishing house in Shanghai. There he 
remains, sending out the printed gospel message, doing 
his utmost to lead his fellow countrymen to choose, as 
he has chosen, the riches of an eternal kingdom rather 
than the deceptive pleasures of this world. 



THE SCHOOL AROUND A RICE SIEVE 

PASTOR HUNG HEI YING once told a story 
that goes to show how much one Bible may do to 
free and brighten a whole neighborhood. 

A Chinese farmer living in a small village far back 
in the country made a long journey to the chief city of 
his prefect. This city lay on the seacoast of China. 
Ships of foreign nations stopped to unload in its har- 
bor goods of many sorts from distant lands. In turn 
the ships were loaded with products of the Far East 
and went on their way. 

When the farmer had finished his business in the city, 
there was still a little money in his pouch. He decided 
to purchase some article from a foreign land which he 
might take home to show his neighbors. Very few if 
any of the villagers had been to the city. Quite cer- 
tainly something of foreign make would be a curiosity 
to them. • 

He entered a shop where the sign in bold characters 
beside the door read, " Foreign and Chinese Goods for 
Sale." There were many attractive things he would 
have liked to take home. But the farmer's money was 
little and the shopkeeper's prices were big. So he left 
the shop to look elsewhere. 

On the street two men were selling books from a 
pack. The farmer could read characters. He was proud 
of that fact. Only a very few men, and doubtless not 
a single woman, in his village could read. He stopped 
to examine the books. 

" Don't be deceived," said a warning voice at his 
elbow, " that is a bad book for a man of our Middle 
Kingdom. It teaches the foreign religion." The speaker 

339 



340 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



cast a contemptuous glance at the men with the pack, 
and passed on. 

" The foreign religion indeed ! " mused the country 
villager. He was looking for something foreign. He 
opened a book at its first page. 

" ' In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth.' This sounds strange. Perhaps, as the old man 
said, this is a foreign book," he reasoned. He asked the 
price. Yes, he could afford that price, so he bought the 
book and carried it home. 



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ITINERATING WITH WHEELBARROW, BEDDING, AND BOOKS 



School Around a Rice Sieve 341 

In this way a single copy of the Bible found its way 
into a village of China where no living voice had yet 
taught God's word. Here is Pastor Hung's story of 
the influence of that book as he told it in his own native 
speech : 

" Some time ago," said the earnest preacher, " I was 
itinerating among the country villages back in the in- 
terior from my home church. On one occasion I was 
struck with the unusual appearance of a village where 
we stopped. It was much more cleanly than any through 
which we had passed. Both men and women were more 
friendly, and looked more hopeful and cheerful than the 
dwellers in the surrounding villages. Their children 
played together in the street with happy faces. On our 
arrival they gathered about my company of helpers, and 
inquired if we had come to teach them. 

" I was surprised to find they already knew of the 
Bible, and could answer a great many questions about 
it. They were acquainted with the story of many men 
spoken of in the Scriptures. This was strange indeed. 
Very well I knew these village women could not read. 
Doubtless very few of the men were able to read. 
Where, then, had these children learned ? 

" I asked if they had a school in their village. 
No,' they answered. 
Do you have a gospel chapel here? ' 

" ' No,' there was no chapel in that part. 

"'Where, then, have you learned these things?' I 
asked. 

" One boy answered that a certain man of their vil- 
lage — all the children respectfully called him ' Uncle ' 
— had bought a book called ' The Holy Bible,' and 
that he taught them a little from it every evening. 



342 A'Chu and Other Stories 

" I made it my purpose," said Pastor Hung, " to 
search this man out, and this is what I found : 

" He was a farmer. He lived in a little dried mud- 
brick house with a straw roof and no floor. He was 
a poor man, too. He rented the ground which he cul- 
tivated, and was obliged to pay a high rent to his land- 
lord. But he had learned to love the Book, and every 
day, after the evening meal, he beat a gong at the door 
of his home. His own children came in, and as many 
others as were free from their work and wished to study. 

" A broad rice sieve made of bamboo splints woven 
like a basket was turned upside down over a grain bas- 
ket. The children clustered around, each scrambling 
for a place near enough to see the characters, and if 
possible to touch with their finger tips the leaves of their 
one lesson book. 

" The rice sieve was their desk. The plain farmer 
was their teacher. The school went on merrily for an 
hour or more. The teacher pointed and named the 
characters, while all the children together repeated them 
after him. Then each child took his turn in standing 
in front of the precious Book and reading the lesson by 
himself. After this the teacher spent a few minutes 
explaining, as best he was able, the meaning of what 
they had read. 

" The lesson over, their desk was turned right side 
up and again became a rice sieve. Their teacher was 
as quickly transformed into the farmer. 

" ' Come, children,' he would call gayly, ' we must 
work the harder to make up for the time we have 
spent in reading. All hands move swiftly.' 

" The children flew to their work with the same 
eager spirit they had shown in their study. Nimble 



School Around a Rice Sieve 



343 



fingers gathered out chaff and cockle and shriveled ker- 
nels of unripened grain from among the plump, white 
kernels shaken out on the broad bottom of the sieve. 
These they tossed into a hamper at the side. But the 
clean, picked rice was poured into strong sacks to be 
stored for market. 

" These village people were too poor to spare the 
children from work during the daytime. They were 
too poor to support a school, or even to buy desks and 
books. But their, earnestness and zeal made up the lack 
of these things. 

" Only in eternity shall we be able to know the in- 
fluence of that one Bible in the hands of a faithful 
farmer in his school around a rice sieve." 




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SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHAPEL AND READING-ROOM, SHANGHAI 



inniiMiuniniiiiiiiiiiiiHiiniH 



IHIIIIIIIIUIIIIIHIIIHIMI 



!44 



THE INFLUENCE OF A CHANGED LIFE 

A GROUP of strange men sat around the study 
table before the open door of a mission chapel. 
They were talking earnestly with the pastor, who was 
trying to explain something out of the book lying 
before him on the table. It was evident from the 
quaint clothes they wore that these men were from the 
country. 

Life in a mission station was new to me at that time, 
and every incident full of interest. Who were these 
odd-looking men, and why had they come here? 

" They are inquirers from a village some twenty 
miles farther west up the river and some distance back 
in the country," explained our hostess, a young woman 
living alone at the mission. 

That was not a very definite way to locate a village. 
But I remembered the Chinese are not very exact in 
their knowledge of geography and not definite in speak- 
ing of distances and locations. Perhaps, after all, that 
was as much as she knew of where they had come from. 

" They are inquirers," our hostess had said. Those 
eager faces, crossed now and then by a look of surprise 
or wonder, did seem to show they were inquiring and 
learning, too, about something in which they were 
deeply interested. 

"What are inquirers? What are they inquiring 
about? " I asked. 

" Persons who have heard something about the gospel, 
and come to the mission to study further, are called 
inquirers." Then she related how these men had been 
led to inquire about the person Jesus Christ, and how 
he saves those who believe in him. 

23 345 



346 A'Chu and Other Stories 

Some months before, a younger brother of the tall 
man seated at the table opposite the pastor had wan- 
dered into this same chapel. He had not liked to work 
on the farm; and becoming discontented with his home, 
came to the city, where he expected to get money easily. 
In the city he fell into bad company and all manner 
of temptations. His money was soon spent, and he was 
obliged to return to his home in the country. There 
he behaved so badly that the family were disgraced. 
They gave him more money, and sent him away. 

He then returned to the city, where he gambled and 
feasted and drank till he became a useless fellow. His 
new friends cast him out. Wandering about in search 
of a bite to eat and a corner in which to sleep, the 
spendthrift passed the chapel. Through the open door 
he heard the invitation, " Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy-laden." He slipped inside and sat 
down. He heard the pastor tell of the Friend of the 
friendless, the Saviour of the helpless. He came again 
the next day, and after that every time the chapel door 
was opened, for four or five days. 

A month or more later he came back, straight and 
clean in mind and body. For more than a week he 
studied earnestly with the pastor, then asked that he 
might be baptized and reckoned as a follower of Christ. 
The pastor advised him to wait a while, till they should 
become better acquainted, and promised to visit him at 
his village in the country for this purpose. 

Before this promise was fulfilled, the young man's 
eldest brother called with a friend to visit the pastor. 
They had walked the long way from their country vil- 
lage to the city in order to purchase, at any price that 
might be asked, some of the magic potion with which 



Influence of a Changed Life 



347 



the Christians had worked such a wonderful change in 
this young man. 

"Why," said the brother, "he is a new man! Be- 
fore, he smoked opium, was indolent, and a spendthrift. 
He left his family to get its own living. He was a 
blasphemer, and an altogether bad man." 




INTERIOR OF CHAPEL, SHANGHAI 

" I did not know what to do with him," added the 
elder man with a fatherly air. " Since his visit to 
the Christians he is all changed. He has left off his 
bad habits, attends to business, and cares for his family. 
More than this, he continually labors to bring his neigh- 
bors to follow his good example." 

" Give us of your Christian medicine, that we, too, 
may become kind and true men," they urged, 



348 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



The pastor explained that no medicine had worked 
this change in their younger brother. " Though thou 
wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet 
thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." 
Instead, it was the power of a crucified and risen Sav- 




CHINESE EVANGELIST WITH BOOKSTAND AND CHART 

iour that had changed his life. A little book which 
he would sell them for a few cents would reveal this 
truth to them. With the New Testament Scriptures 
in their pockets, they took their journey homeward, more 
astonished than when they came by what they had seen 
and heard, 



Influence of a Changed Life 



349 



Several weeks had elapsed since that visit. This com- 
pany of inquirers, seated around the chapel study table, 
had been selected by their community as the best edu- 
cated and most honorable men of the village to visit 
the mission. They were to stay and study the Christian 
faith. If they became convinced that it was really true, 
that is, if it could be trusted to do for others what it 
had done for their prodigal young man, then they were 
to bring back with them a teacher who would lead 
them all in the Christian way. 

Such was the influence of one young man who had 
become converted to Christ. 




STUDYING THE BIBLE 











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EVANGELIST DJOU AND HIS WIFE, OF GAN D.TOU, KIANGSI 



350 



A STEADFAST CHRISTIAN 

WHEN a certain Chinese young man became a 
Christian, he decided to spend all his strength in 
leading others to believe in Jesus. The old heathen 
name given by his parents was laid aside, together with 
many of his old habits of life, as betting, gambling, 
going to shows and theater plays. He would spend no 
more time on these hurtful and useless amusements, 
now that he knew of the better things concerning sal- 
vation and an eternal life. He took a new name, Chun 
Yee (preaching righteousness), to represent his new 
intention. 

There was a great commotion in his home village 
when the people heard of the change in this young 
man's ways and of the new name he had taken. Greater 
still was the commotion when it was reported that he 
was about to be baptized in the open running stream 
on the outskirts of the village, and to join the Christian 
church. To save their village from riot and to prevent 
perhaps the death of some member of his family, Chun 
Yee left his home unobserved, and walked eighteen miles 
to a quiet spot in the country, where he was baptized. 

Like most of his countrymen, Chun Yee had been 
married while still a very young man, perhaps not more 
than eighteen years of age. His wife was two or three 
years younger than himself. But though young, she 
had a mind of her own, and that mind was devotedly 
set on heathen worship. Between the nagging of a 
strong-willed wife and the scolding of a loud-voiced 
mother, the young Christian was doomed to a sorry 
time at home. His wife continually teased him for 
being so weak and silly as to forsake the gods of their 

351 



352 



A J Chu and Other Stories 



own " ancient and honorable country " to follow the 
" foreign-devil's religion." To show that she had no 
intention of taking up with his foolish notions, she 
doubled her service to the idols in their own home, 
and went twice as often as before to the temple. 




THE BAMBOO MAT TABERNACLE 



A Steadfast Christian 353 

The mother, loud and angry, talked and talked of 
this absurd idea of her son to become one of those 
scorned and hated Christians, despised by everybody. 
She bemoaned herself that he would not worship at 
the tombs of their ancestors, and by this neglect would 
cut himself off from their blessing. He certainly would 
fall into poverty and disgrace. 

One of his children became sick and died. At this 
both mother and wife mocked him with scorn. " See," 
said they, " what you have brought upon yourself, and 
what sorrow to us! This is the result of your wor- 
shiping the foreign-devil's God." 

But none of these things affected his steadfast pur- 
pose to be a Christian. Indeed, all this trouble only 
made him more determined to cling closely to Jesus, 
who alone could give him comfort. 

While visiting a friend one day, the mother heard 
how another Chinese woman had prevented her son 
from going to the mission chapel. She made up her 
mind to try the experiment on Chun Yee. This other 
mother had threatened to cut off her son's queue, which 
so frightened the young man that he never went near 
the chapel again. 

That night Chun Yee's mother got a pair of big 
shears, and coming up to him, said, " Now, if you do 
not promise to stop going to that foreign-devil chapel, 
I am going to cut off your hair. You then will look 
like the foreigner you really are." 

She had not realized the power and strength of pur- 
pose that had come to her son through faith in Jesus. 

" Here it is. Cut it off, if you will," he replied, 
smilingly holding out with one hand the long, black 
braid of hair. 



4* 




A Steadfast Christian 355 

"What, can nothing turn you?" she exclaimed. 

" Nothing, mother," he replied, and she heard him 
repeat softly, " I am persuaded, that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from 
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

She had thought to frighten him. Horror upon 
horrors ! he did not resist even her threat. No ; she 
would not disgrace herself by making her boy more like 
the hated foreigners than he already was. She put 
away the scissors, saying sullenly, 

"It is of no use; he has taken some of their Jesus 
medicine. Nothing can cure him. He is lost to me. 
When I die, he will not come and bring me food nor 
worship at my grave. Oh, oh! I shall become a wan- 
dering beggar, for whom no one has a care!" 

At this she burst into loud weeping. She cursed the 
foreigners for coming to their land and leading her son 
away from the worship of China's gods. She became 
hysterical, and raved in frenzy. In desperation and 
anger she even cursed her son, and declared he was 
no longer her child. 

Chun Yee quietly and patiently bore all the abuse 
his mother and wife heaped upon him. Day by day, 
week by week, he grew to be more like Christ. By 
and by they began to think more reasonably. Perhaps 
this religion of Jesus was not so bad as some people 
made out. For, see their man! He did not now visit 
the gambling house nor smoke opium any more. He 
never returned curses for cursing, but was kind and 
patient under all their ill treatment. " Perhaps we too 
had better learn this Jesus doctrine," they said. 



356 



A'Chu and Other Stories 



When the missionary saw that Chun Yee had indeed 
become a stanch and steadfast Christian, he chose this 
young man for a colporteur to travel about through the 
country and villages for the purpose of selling Bibles 
and tracts teaching the Christian faith. Wherever he 




SHANGTSAI HSIEN MISSION 

went he preached the word of God, even as his name 
was now called, " Preaching Righteousness." He fully 
believed and trusted in Jesus, and rejoiced in making 
him known to others. 

"How bold he is!" remarked one man who had 
long professed to be a Christian. " He is not afraid to 
speak to me about my sins. All men, high or low, are 
alike in his eyes.'^ 



A Steadfast Christi 



357 



Chun Yee had not been sent to school when he was 
young. He was very sorry to have missed an educa- 
tion, but he was very constant in the study of God's 
word. One day he was overheard in earnest conver- 
sation with another man who was quite a learned 
scholar. " All your learning from the writing of China's 
wise men cannot help you to lead others to Christ," he 
said reverently. " The Bible alone can teach one this 
secret. You must study the Bible more, and then you 
will be able to lead others into its true teaching." 

In the colporteur work Chun Yee often walked thirty 
miles a day over uneven paths. Through the day he 
sold books by the wayside, on the mountain paths, or 
in the village inn, wherever he could persuade one to 
buy. In the evening he preached the gospel to groups 
of men who gathered to hear. Everywhere he had only 




A CHINESE WRITING BOX 



358 



A'Ghu and Other Stories 



one story to tell, and that story was always of Jesus 
and his love. Though he never became great or learned, 
he loved the Lord with all his heart, and God gave 
him power to turn many of his countrymen away from 
their idols and toward the kingdom of God. 




SCHOOL GIRLS, HONAN 



